Artificial intelligence has long arrived in the event industry, but its impact is unevenly distributed. Some tasks become much faster, others stay the same. What is most interesting is what changes in the collaboration between companies and agencies.
First theme ideas, draft texts and mood images emerge quickly with AI. That shortens the early concept phase and changes what clients expect: faster feedback, more visualisation, more variants.
The study by the staffing consultancy Soundings frames this as a competitive issue: clients from industries where AI is more widespread carry their expectations of pace and efficiency into their work with event teams.
Anyone who can generate ideas and images with AI comes to an agency with different starting points: finished mood boards, draft texts or concrete scenes in mind. That is an opportunity because expectations become visible early. It also carries the risk that a generated image is understood as a commitment.
Our assessment: in future, briefings will more often be an AI-supported starting point that an agency checks and develops for feasibility, budget, safety and dramaturgy.
Day-to-day work also changes beyond creative tasks: briefings can be structured, quotes prepared for comparison, participant communication personalised and recap videos produced faster. One trade blog cites a realistic time saving of around 30 percent in pre-production. Such figures are estimates and depend heavily on the individual case.
According to the Soundings study, over a third of the organisations surveyed use AI to personalise for participants, and 37 percent use it to analyse results after the event. At large events, matching features and assistants help guide attendees to the right content and contacts.
In the PULSE survey by Cvent and Northstar Meetings, 65 percent of planners use generative AI, but only 16 percent see a significant improvement in their work. Many name data quality as the biggest hurdle. Data protection and legal questions about handling participant data add to this.
Another risk is sameness: if many people use the same tools with similar prompts, similar ideas result. Differentiation then arises less in the idea than in the quality of selection, adaptation and delivery.
For clients, it is worth using AI as a means to better briefings, not as a substitute for engaging with goals and audience. For agencies, it becomes decisive to respond quickly to concrete ideas while saying what of it is realistic on site. More than three quarters of those surveyed in the Soundings study want training and guidance, an indication of how young the topic still is in practice.
You can read how we use AI ourselves in AI in event planning: a tool for concepting. An overview of tools is given in AI tools for the event industry.
Figures from: Cvent: PULSE survey, Prevue Meetings on the Soundings study and Skill Sprinters: AI for event agencies (in German). Statements marked “our assessment” are INCENTRY opinions.
AI makes concepting and organisation faster and briefings more concrete. The demands on delivery, selection and responsibility do not shrink as a result but move closer to the centre.
Generated ideas and images are starting points. Feasibility, budget and safety are not settled by them.
Quickly generated variants do not replace careful selection and alignment with client and occasion.
Participant data does not belong in unclear AI services. This applies to clients and agencies alike.
Bring them along. Together we check what is feasible and develop it further.
