Chart of the Month: rise and rise of generative AI in events

Generative AI tools have made their mark on the world and are soon set to make waves in events, a new study suggests.

UFI’s 31st Global Exhibition Barometer research shows the use of applications like ChatGPT and Midjourney is rising significantly in tradeshows – and will continue to grow.

Almost two-thirds (62%) believe it will impact event sales, marketing and customer relations, while 58% believe it will effect research and development.

Source: UFI

The current impact has been most prominent in sales, marketing and customer relations with 22% using generative AI, followed closely by research and development (19%) and event production (10%).

Some reasons behind the growing popularity include:

• Ability to brainstorm creative content quickly
• Boost efficiency and productivity, reduce the manual burden and labour costs
• Saving time to focus on critical tasks requiring human intervention
• Data-driven insights to improve decision-making

Get comprehensive insights into how digital tools will shape the event industry in 2023 ➡️  Download the Event Tech H2 2023 forecast 

Key applications for generative AI in exhibitions 🤖

AI is not exactly a new phenomenon – it has been around in the form of customer support chatbots and automation to handle queries and provide event information.

However, the simple conversational ‘prompt-and-create’ experience of generative tools has fast-tracked its application in many areas of exhibition planning and management, such as:

1. Automated content generation: Produce different content like interactive visuals, personalised videos and promotional materials, based on predefined criteria.
2. Predictive attendee analytics: Analyse historical data and predict attendee demographics, interests and preferences. Helps organisers tailor their exhibition in a more customised way to their audience.
3. Predictive analytics for sales: Generative AI algorithms help forecast customer behaviour, identify buying patterns and recommend personalised offers. This empowers sales representatives to make targeted decisions to close more deals.
4. Personalised agendas: Create personalised schedules for attendees and exhibitors based on their preferences to maximise time and help them get the most value.

However, the growth of generative AI will only add to the rise of specialised event technology.

A recent Gartner survey of large enterprise CIOs found 81% plan to grow their IT team in 2023.

Jose Ramirez, senior principal analyst at Gartner, said: “Attracting and retaining technology talent remain critical areas of concern for CIOs.

“Even with advances in AI, Gartner predicts that the global job impact will be neutral in the next several years due to enterprise adoption lags, implementation times and learning curves.”

This trend holds for the exhibitions industry, which is embracing digital tools and solutions to transform their internal processes and make their shows smarter ⤵️

Advancing together: AI’s fusion with smart event solutions ⚛️

What will future event tech solutions look like? The complex nature of tradeshows suggests generative AI and digital tech will work in synergy, with algorithms making event tech tools smarter and more effective than before.

Research from Gartner reveals an interesting fact –  55% of organisations that have used it before are likely to use an AI-first strategy for new use cases.

Meanwhile, findings from UFI’s survey reflect a similar trend. Changing customer expectations are most likely to influence business development over the next five years, with richer, more personalised experiences being the order of the day.

Digitalisation will continue to be a crucial factor as more organisers infuse digital tech into their exhibitions and transform their internal processes.

For exhibition organisers, it’s a crucial moment to equip their shows with tools and create experiences that resonate with and delight their audience. Some of these smart event tech tools include:

1. AI-powered matchmaking: Enable meaningful business interactions using people-to-resource mapping algorithms.
2. Hosted buyer programme: Use online hosted buyer software to create a curated buyer-seller experience, increase leads and boost sales.
3. Lead retrieval: Scan leads real-time, qualify and nurture prospects and make decisions with analytics dashboard.
4. 365 community: Build an online community to offer personalised experiences, networking and revenue generation opportunities before, during and after the live event.
5. Exhibitor manual: Online exhibitor manual software to onboard and monetise your exhibitors.

We hope you enjoyed reading this article and found it useful. At ExpoPlatform, we want to help you build better events and communities. Please get in touch and ask for a demo here. Thank you 😀