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In this episode of Sidecar Sync, Mallory Mejias and Amith Nagarajan dive into three high-octane AI developments reshaping the landscape of innovation. They kick things off with Claude Haiku 4.5, Anthropic’s blazing-fast small model offering near-frontier performance at a fraction of the cost. Then, the hosts explore diffusion models—an architectural shake-up that could revolutionize how AI generates language. Finally, they venture into orbit with Google’s ambitious Project Suncatcher, a plan to power machine learning with solar satellites in space. Along the way, they unpack what these advancements mean for associations and why now is the time to set bold, moonshot goals.
 
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https://digitalnow.sidecar.ai/digitalnow2026

🛠 AI Tools and Resources Mentioned in This Episode:

Claude Haiku 4.5 ➔ https://www.anthropic.com/news/claude-haiku-4-5
Comet AI Browser ➔ https://www.perplexity.ai
Claude for Chrome ➔ https://claude.ai/chrome
Inception Labs ➔ https://www.inceptionlabs.ai/#our-models
NotebookLM ➔ https://notebooklm.google
Project Suncatcher ➔ https://shorturl.at/sVh5B

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Amith Nagarajan is the Chairman of Blue Cypress, a family of purpose-driven companies and proud practitioners of Conscious Capitalism. The Blue Cypress companies focus on helping associations, non-profits, and other purpose-driven organizations achieve long-term success. Amith is also an active early-stage investor in B2B SaaS companies. He’s had the good fortune of nearly three decades of success as an entrepreneur and enjoys helping others in their journey.

https://linkedin.com/amithnagarajan

Mallory Mejias is passionate about creating opportunities for association professionals to learn, grow, and better serve their members using artificial intelligence. She enjoys blending creativity and innovation to produce fresh, meaningful content for the association space. Mallory co-hosts and produces the Sidecar Sync podcast, where she delves into the latest trends in AI and technology, translating them into actionable insights.

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Live from digitalNow 2025 in Chicago, this special edition of Sidecar Sync brings together voices from across the association world, sharing real-life examples of AI implementation, leadership innovation, and strategic transformation. Mallory Mejias speaks with leaders from the American Paint Horse Association, the Missouri State Teachers Association, AGRiP, and more to uncover how associations are moving from ideation to execution with AI. Whether it’s slashing support calls with AI chatbots or overhauling strategic planning using the St. Louis Arch as a metaphor, this episode is packed with inspiration, practical takeaways, and a healthy dose of in-person energy.
 
🤖 Join the AI Mastermind: https://sidecar.ai/association-ai-mastermind

📕 Download the New 3rd Edition of ‘Ascend’:
https://sidecar.ai/ai

📅 Join the pre-registration list for digitalNow 2026:
https://digitalnow.sidecar.ai/digitalnow2026

🔧 AI Tools and Resources Mentioned in This Episode:

Betty Bot ➔ https://bettybot.ai
Sidecar AI Learning Hub ➔ https://learn.sidecar.ai

🔎 Check out Sidecar's AI Learning Hub for Teams:
https://sidecar.ai/lh4t

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https://x.com/sidecarglobal
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Amith Nagarajan is the Chairman of Blue Cypress, a family of purpose-driven companies and proud practitioners of Conscious Capitalism. The Blue Cypress companies focus on helping associations, non-profits, and other purpose-driven organizations achieve long-term success. Amith is also an active early-stage investor in B2B SaaS companies. He’s had the good fortune of nearly three decades of success as an entrepreneur and enjoys helping others in their journey.

https://linkedin.com/amithnagarajan

Mallory Mejias is passionate about creating opportunities for association professionals to learn, grow, and better serve their members using artificial intelligence. She enjoys blending creativity and innovation to produce fresh, meaningful content for the association space. Mallory co-hosts and produces the Sidecar Sync podcast, where she delves into the latest trends in AI and technology, translating them into actionable insights.

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In this episode of Sidecar Sync, Mallory Mejias is joined by marine biologist and behavioral researcher Dr. Denise Herzing for a one-of-a-kind conversation about dolphins, data, and deep learning. Dr. Herzing shares insights from her 40-year study of Atlantic spotted dolphins and how that lifetime of underwater research is now powering DolphinGemma—an open-source large language model trained on dolphin vocalizations. The two discuss what it means to label meaning in animal communication, how AI is finally catching up to the natural world, and why collaboration across disciplines is essential to understanding both language and intelligence—human or otherwise.

Dr. Denise Herzing is the Founder and Research Director of the Wild Dolphin Project, leading nearly four decades of groundbreaking research on Atlantic spotted dolphins in the Bahamas. She holds degrees in Marine Zoology and Behavioral Biology (B.S., M.A., Ph.D.) and serves as an Affiliate Assistant Professor at Florida Atlantic University. A Guggenheim and Explorers Club Fellow, Dr. Herzing has advised the Lifeboat Foundation and American Cetacean Society and sits on the board of Schoolyard Films. Her work has been featured in National Geographic, BBC, PBS, Discovery, and her TED2013 talk. She is the author of Dolphin Diaries and co-editor of Dolphin Communication and Cognition.
 
🤖 Join the AI Mastermind: https://sidecar.ai/association-ai-mastermind

📕 Download ‘Ascend 3rd Edition: Unlocking the Power of AI for Associations’ for FREE
https://sidecar.ai/ai

🛠 AI Tools and Resources Mentioned in This Episode:

Wild Dolphin Project ➔ https://www.wilddolphinproject.org
DolphinGemma ➔ https://deepmind.google/models/gemma/dolphingemma/
TIME AI 100 ➔ https://shorturl.at/OUQ2h
Google DeepMind ➔ https://deepmind.google

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Amith Nagarajan is the Chairman of Blue Cypress, a family of purpose-driven companies and proud practitioners of Conscious Capitalism. The Blue Cypress companies focus on helping associations, non-profits, and other purpose-driven organizations achieve long-term success. Amith is also an active early-stage investor in B2B SaaS companies. He’s had the good fortune of nearly three decades of success as an entrepreneur and enjoys helping others in their journey.

https://linkedin.com/amithnagarajan

Mallory Mejias is passionate about creating opportunities for association professionals to learn, grow, and better serve their members using artificial intelligence. She enjoys blending creativity and innovation to produce fresh, meaningful content for the association space. Mallory co-hosts and produces the Sidecar Sync podcast, where she delves into the latest trends in AI and technology, translating them into actionable insights.

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In this solo episode, Mallory Mejias takes the reins to unveil what digitalNow 2025 reveals about the current state of AI in associations—spoiler alert: we're officially in the "AI adolescence" phase. From cultural adoption to trust-building, she unpacks the four key insights her analysis surfaced from the event’s full schedule. But that’s not all—Mallory goes off-script to live-build a conference session recommender app on air, showing how even non-technical folks can leverage AI for rapid, practical innovation. Whether you're attending digitalNow or just AI-curious, this episode is packed with strategic takeaways and an extra dose of hands-on fun.
 
 🤖 Join the AI Mastermind: https://sidecar.ai/association-ai-mastermind

📕 Download ‘Ascend 2nd Edition: Unlocking the Power of AI for Associations’ for FREE
https://sidecar.ai/ai

🛠 AI Tools and Resources Mentioned in This Episode:

Claude ➔ https://claude.ai
Groq ➔ https://groq.com
ChatGPT ➔ https://chat.openai.com
digitalNow Conference Companion App (Bottom of Page) ➔ https://sidecar.ai/events

🔎 Check out Sidecar's AI Learning Hub for Teams:
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https://x.com/sidecarglobal
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Amith Nagarajan is the Chairman of Blue Cypress, a family of purpose-driven companies and proud practitioners of Conscious Capitalism. The Blue Cypress companies focus on helping associations, non-profits, and other purpose-driven organizations achieve long-term success. Amith is also an active early-stage investor in B2B SaaS companies. He’s had the good fortune of nearly three decades of success as an entrepreneur and enjoys helping others in their journey.

https://linkedin.com/amithnagarajan

Mallory Mejias is passionate about creating opportunities for association professionals to learn, grow, and better serve their members using artificial intelligence. She enjoys blending creativity and innovation to produce fresh, meaningful content for the association space. Mallory co-hosts and produces the Sidecar Sync podcast, where she delves into the latest trends in AI and technology, translating them into actionable insights.

https://linkedin.com/mallorymejias

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In this episode, Mallory Mejias sits down with UX and content strategy expert Bryan Kelly to explore how the longevity economy—a massive shift toward a population dominated by adults over 50—is transforming digital experiences. Bryan dives into why designing for older adults is less about age and more about behaviors, values, and life stage. He breaks down the common UX mistakes organizations make and shares practical strategies for building trust, clarity, and confidence into every member interaction. The duo also discusses the powerful, and sometimes dangerous, intersection of AI and age bias, and how associations can prepare for a more nuanced, age-inclusive future. Bryan will also be keynoting at digitalNow 2025, so consider this your sneak preview!
 
Bryan Kelly is a UX and content strategy leader focused on creating digital experiences that work better for adults over 50. He’s delivered measurable results for brands like McAfee, Premera Blue Cross, EXPRESS, Home Depot, Orange Theory Fitness, and FedEx by transforming user insights into revenue-driving features. Blending product strategy, UX expertise, and business acumen, Bryan helps organizations better serve this experienced and influential audience.
 
More About Bryan Kelly:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/bryankellynow/

🤖 Join the AI Mastermind: https://sidecar.ai/association-ai-mastermind
 
🛠 AI Tools and Resources Mentioned in This Episode:

Claude ➔ https://claude.ai
ChatGPT ➔ https://chat.openai.com
MIT AgeLab ➔ https://agelab.mit.edu
Stanford Center on Longevity ➔ https://longevity.stanford.edu

Curious if your content is ageist?
Download: Identifying Age Bias: A Framework for Age-Inclusive Content Design

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https://sidecar.ai/lh4t

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https://x.com/sidecarglobal
https://www.youtube.com/@SidecarSync
https://sidecar.ai/
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Amith Nagarajan is the Chairman of Blue Cypress, a family of purpose-driven companies and proud practitioners of Conscious Capitalism. The Blue Cypress companies focus on helping associations, non-profits, and other purpose-driven organizations achieve long-term success. Amith is also an active early-stage investor in B2B SaaS companies. He’s had the good fortune of nearly three decades of success as an entrepreneur and enjoys helping others in their journey.

https://linkedin.com/amithnagarajan

Mallory Mejias is passionate about creating opportunities for association professionals to learn, grow, and better serve their members using artificial intelligence. She enjoys blending creativity and innovation to produce fresh, meaningful content for the association space. Mallory co-hosts and produces the Sidecar Sync podcast, where she delves into the latest trends in AI and technology, translating them into actionable insights.

https://linkedin.com/mallorymejias

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In this episode of Sidecar Sync, Mallory Mejias and Amith Nagarajan dive into three seemingly distinct but tightly connected topics: a groundbreaking robotic hand from China that could redefine how machines interact with our world, the growing movement of mandatory AI literacy training sweeping through corporations and governments, and new data from Anthropic showing a widening economic divide in AI adoption. They explore what these trends mean for the future of work, equity, and innovation—and why every association leader should be paying close attention.
 
🤖 Join the AI Mastermind: https://sidecar.ai/association-ai-mastermind

📕 Download ‘Ascend 2nd Edition: Unlocking the Power of AI for Associations’ for FREE
https://sidecar.ai/ai

🛠 AI Tools and Resources Mentioned in This Episode:
ChatGPT ➔ https://openai.com/chatgpt
Claude ➔ https://claude.ai
Suno ➔ https://suno.com
NotebookLM ➔ https://notebooklm.google
Google Gemini Nano ➔ https://ai.google/discover/gemini
Anthropic Economic Index ➔ https://shorturl.at/23b42
Citi AI mandate ➔ https://shorturl.at/DLXZY
Wuji Tech Demo ➔ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LXVV-oErD8s

🔎 Check out Sidecar's AI Learning Hub for Teams:
https://sidecar.ai/lh4t

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https://x.com/sidecarglobal
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https://sidecar.ai/
https://www.linkedin.com/company/sidecar-global/

Amith Nagarajan is the Chairman of Blue Cypress, a family of purpose-driven companies and proud practitioners of Conscious Capitalism. The Blue Cypress companies focus on helping associations, non-profits, and other purpose-driven organizations achieve long-term success. Amith is also an active early-stage investor in B2B SaaS companies. He’s had the good fortune of nearly three decades of success as an entrepreneur and enjoys helping others in their journey.

https://linkedin.com/amithnagarajan

Mallory Mejias is passionate about creating opportunities for association professionals to learn, grow, and better serve their members using artificial intelligence. She enjoys blending creativity and innovation to produce fresh, meaningful content for the association space. Mallory co-hosts and produces the Sidecar Sync podcast, where she delves into the latest trends in AI and technology, translating them into actionable insights.

https://linkedin.com/mallorymejias

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This week on Sidecar Sync, Amith Nagarajan and Mallory Mejias dive deep into OpenAI’s biggest moves of the year—starting with how ChatGPT has evolved into a no-code platform capable of building full applications in minutes. They explore the implications of AgentKit, voice-first workflows, and whether associations should adopt or avoid these locked-in ecosystems. Mallory reveals how ChatGPT Pulse, a $200/month personal AI assistant, is reshaping expectations around newsletters and member engagement. Finally, they unpack OpenAI’s trillion-dollar infrastructure pacts with Nvidia, AMD, and Oracle—and what it means for cost, control, and the future of AI accessibility. Associations, take note: the AI platform war is accelerating, and your strategy matters more than ever.
 
🤖 Join the AI Mastermind: https://sidecar.ai/association-ai-mastermind

📕 Download ‘Ascend 2nd Edition: Unlocking the Power of AI for Associations’ for FREE
https://sidecar.ai/ai

🛠 AI Tools and Resources Mentioned in This Episode:

AgentKit ➔ https://openai.com/index/introducing-agentkit/
ChatGPT Pulse ➔ https://openai.com/index/introducing-chatgpt-pulse/
rasa.io ➔ https://rasa.io

🔎 Check out Sidecar's AI Learning Hub for Teams:
https://sidecar.ai/lh4t

🚀 Help Us Grow Our Reach - Share With a Friend or Colleague!

👍 Like & Subscribe!
https://x.com/sidecarglobal
https://www.youtube.com/@SidecarSync
https://sidecar.ai/
https://www.linkedin.com/company/sidecar-global/

Amith Nagarajan is the Chairman of Blue Cypress, a family of purpose-driven companies and proud practitioners of Conscious Capitalism. The Blue Cypress companies focus on helping associations, non-profits, and other purpose-driven organizations achieve long-term success. Amith is also an active early-stage investor in B2B SaaS companies. He’s had the good fortune of nearly three decades of success as an entrepreneur and enjoys helping others in their journey.

https://linkedin.com/amithnagarajan

Mallory Mejias is passionate about creating opportunities for association professionals to learn, grow, and better serve their members using artificial intelligence. She enjoys blending creativity and innovation to produce fresh, meaningful content for the association space. Mallory co-hosts and produces the Sidecar Sync podcast, where she delves into the latest trends in AI and technology, translating them into actionable insights.

https://linkedin.com/mallorymejias

Send us a text

In this jam-packed episode of Sidecar Sync, co-hosts Amith Nagarajan and Mallory Mejias tackle five cutting-edge AI developments, all (mostly) fitting into three big buckets. From the powerhouse that is Claude 4.5 Sonnet to OpenAI's stunning new Sora 2 video model, this episode dives into real-world use cases, experiments, and emerging tools that are reshaping how associations can work smarter. They also break down the promise of computer use models, the future of AI-native browsers, and what "boring AI" really means for legacy software. Amith shares highlights from the Blue Cypress Leadership Summit and explains why early adopters might just lap the competition. Packed with demos, practical takeaways, and some existential questions for creatives, this is one you don’t want to miss.
 
🤖 Join the AI Mastermind: https://sidecar.ai/association-ai-mastermind

📕 Download ‘Ascend 2nd Edition: Unlocking the Power of AI for Associations’ for FREE
https://sidecar.ai/ai
 
🛠 AI Tools and Resources Mentioned in This Episode

 Claude 4.5 Sonnet ➔ https://www.anthropic.com

 Claude Code ➔ https://www.anthropic.com

 Otter.ai ➔ https://otter.ai

 MemberJunction ➔ https://memberjunction.com

ElevenLabs AI Voice Agents ➔ https://www.elevenlabs.io

Perplexity AI ➔ https://www.perplexity.ai

Sora 2 Demo ➔ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1PaoWKvcJP 

Neon AI Browser Demo ➔ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MKQ98413RCI

Learning Content Agent Episode ➔ https://shorturl.at/nxEry

🔎 Check out Sidecar's AI Learning Hub for Teams:
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https://x.com/sidecarglobal
https://www.youtube.com/@SidecarSync
https://sidecar.ai/
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Amith Nagarajan is the Chairman of Blue Cypress, a family of purpose-driven companies and proud practitioners of Conscious Capitalism. The Blue Cypress companies focus on helping associations, non-profits, and other purpose-driven organizations achieve long-term success. Amith is also an active early-stage investor in B2B SaaS companies. He’s had the good fortune of nearly three decades of success as an entrepreneur and enjoys helping others in their journey.

https://linkedin.com/amithnagarajan

Mallory Mejias is passionate about creating opportunities for association professionals to learn, grow, and better serve their members using artificial intelligence. She enjoys blending creativity and innovation to produce fresh, meaningful content for the association space. Mallory co-hosts and produces the Sidecar Sync podcast, where she delves into the latest trends in AI and technology, translating them into actionable insights.

https://linkedin.com/mallorymejias

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In this special interview edition of Sidecar Sync, Mallory Mejias sits down with Shekar Sivasubramanian, Head of the Wadhwani Institute for Artificial Intelligence, to explore how AI can be deployed at scale for social good. Shekar shares powerful stories of AI in action—from an oral reading fluency assistant helping millions of Indian children, to smartphone-powered pest detection for rural farmers. This episode dives into designing for deployment (not just innovation), building trust with limited data, and why humility and human-centered thinking are vital for transformative impact. It’s a conversation full of heart, hope, and hard-earned wisdom.
 
Shekar Sivasubramanian brings nearly four decades of experience in technology and business leadership, having scaled multiple startups to billion-dollar valuations. Now Head of the Wadhwani Institute for Artificial Intelligence, he leads a team delivering AI solutions in agriculture, healthcare, and education to underserved populations across India. An alum of IIT Bombay and the University of Missouri–Kansas City, Shekar also maintains deep technical expertise and a research affiliation with Carnegie Mellon University.
 
🤖 Join the AI Mastermind: https://sidecar.ai/association-ai-mastermind

📕 Download ‘Ascend 2nd Edition: Unlocking the Power of AI for Associations’ for FREE
https://sidecar.ai/ai

🛠 AI Tools and Resources Mentioned in This Episode:

Wadhwani AI ➡ https://www.wadhwaniai.org

🔎 Check out Sidecar's AI Learning Hub for Teams:
https://sidecar.ai/lh4t

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👍 Like & Subscribe!
https://x.com/sidecarglobal
https://www.youtube.com/@SidecarSync
https://sidecar.ai/
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Amith Nagarajan is the Chairman of Blue Cypress, a family of purpose-driven companies and proud practitioners of Conscious Capitalism. The Blue Cypress companies focus on helping associations, non-profits, and other purpose-driven organizations achieve long-term success. Amith is also an active early-stage investor in B2B SaaS companies. He’s had the good fortune of nearly three decades of success as an entrepreneur and enjoys helping others in their journey.

https://linkedin.com/amithnagarajan

Mallory Mejias is passionate about creating opportunities for association professionals to learn, grow, and better serve their members using artificial intelligence. She enjoys blending creativity and innovation to produce fresh, meaningful content for the association space. Mallory co-hosts and produces the Sidecar Sync podcast, where she delves into the latest trends in AI and technology, translating them into actionable insights.

https://linkedin.com/mallorymejias

Send us a text

In this special 100th episode of Sidecar Sync, co-hosts Amith Nagarajan and Mallory Mejias take a celebratory stroll down memory lane, unpacking the journey from the show’s inception in 2023 to today. They reflect on five distinct podcast eras, distill the top 10 AI insights echoed across episodes, and get candid about the surprising speed of tech transformation in the association space. You’ll hear how Mallory used Claude and Google Colab to distill hundreds of transcripts, which past guests left a mark, and what the future holds for episode 200. Plus, an exclusive giveaway for loyal listeners and one golden use case every association should adopt today.

 🤖 Join the AI Mastermind: https://sidecar.ai/association-ai-mastermind

📕 Download ‘Ascend 2nd Edition: Unlocking the Power of AI for Associations’ for FREE
 https://sidecar.ai/ai

🛠 AI Tools and Resources Mentioned in This Episode:

Claude ➡ https://claude.ai
Google Colab ➡ https://colab.research.google.com
Zapier ➡ https://zapier.com
Groq ➡ https://groq.com
Sidecar AI Learning Hub ➡ https://learn.sidecar.ai

🔎 Check out Sidecar's AI Learning Hub for Teams:
https://sidecar.ai/lh4t

🚀 Help Us Grow Our Reach - Share With a Friend or Colleague!

👍 Like & Subscribe!
https://x.com/sidecarglobal
https://www.youtube.com/@SidecarSync
https://sidecar.ai/
https://www.linkedin.com/company/sidecar-global/

Amith Nagarajan is the Chairman of Blue Cypress, a family of purpose-driven companies and proud practitioners of Conscious Capitalism. The Blue Cypress companies focus on helping associations, non-profits, and other purpose-driven organizations achieve long-term success. Amith is also an active early-stage investor in B2B SaaS companies. He’s had the good fortune of nearly three decades of success as an entrepreneur and enjoys helping others in their journey.

https://linkedin.com/amithnagarajan

Mallory Mejias is passionate about creating opportunities for association professionals to learn, grow, and better serve their members using artificial intelligence. She enjoys blending creativity and innovation to produce fresh, meaningful content for the association space. Mallory co-hosts and produces the Sidecar Sync podcast, where she delves into the latest trends in AI and technology, translating them into actionable insights.

https://linkedin.com/mallorymejias