Staffing, consulting and career coaching agency Soundings recently released a 12-month benchmark report on AI adoption rates across the business events industry. The Soundings report shows that AI use among event professionals is practical, quick and immediate.
What respondents said about their AI use:
- Content creation and curation lead—65%
- Marketing and promotion—42%
- Chatbots and virtual assistants—40%
- Logistics and operations management—30%
- Post-event analytics and reporting—26%
- Attendee management and personalization—21%
Additionally:
- 42% said AI is helping with team efficiency
- More than 80% of participants plan to allocate less than 10% of their learning and development budgets to AI training
- More than 68% plan to put less than 10% of their technology budgets toward AI tools
Soundings’ benchmark report shows AI adoption is rising across the business events industry
The growth and popularity of AI have taken the workforce by storm. Like it or not, AI adoption has become one of the most discussed topics from the C-suite and down in many companies, as leaders look to implement it into their day-to-day workflows.
To better grasp this shift, Smart Meetings spoke with Tracy Judge, founder and CEO of staffing, consulting and career coaching agency Soundings, which recently released a 12-month benchmark report on AI adoption rates across the business events industry.
The Growth of Adoption
According to the Soundings report, AI adoption is up from 59% to 77%, a significant double-digit jump.
However, despite planners’ efforts to lean into AI adoption, teams are still trying to figure out how to layer the new technology into their tried-and-true workflows.
“AI adoption alone is not enough,” said Tracy Judge, founder and CEO of Soundings. “While AI usage is accelerating across the industry, many organizations are still applying AI as a standalone productivity tool rather than integrating it into how work, teams and operations are designed.”
Operational vs. Practical
Similar to your everyday user, the Soundings report shows that AI use among event professionals is practical, quick and immediate. Content creation and curation lead at 65%, followed by marketing and promotion at 42%, chatbots and virtual assistants at 40%, logistics and operations management at 30%, post-event analytics and reporting at 26%, and attendee management and personalization at 21%.
“Usage is still heavily on the marketing, content and chatbot side,” Judge said. “We’re still seeing those things higher than we are on the operational usage of it.”
AI in Operations
Integrating AI within the operational side of the business is still something Judge is waiting to see.
Read More: AI: Resistance Is Futile
“The biggest opportunity for our industry as a whole with AI is embedding it in how we work and operate,” Judge said.
Support, resources and technology are needed to properly integrate AI into tried-and-tested workflows and better understand how it would work within an organization.
Efficiency and Team Transformation
While AI has become helpful for content creation, the Soundings report shows that organizations are still hesitant about how to move forward.
“Only 42% of respondents said that it’s helping with team efficiency,” Judge said. “We’re seeing it with personal efficiency, but not team efficiency as much.”
Judge continued, “That’s where we can infer that the workflows aren’t happening, because if workflows are happening across the team or company or department, then we would see a higher percentage of efficiency.”
The Buck Stops at Leadership
Judge said she hopes the Soundings report shows leaders there is already movement in their own organizations when it comes to their teams’ use of AI. However, she also sees a significant gap between leadership teams and frontline workers.
Read More: Smart Women Rules: Five Leadership Lessons for Thriving, No Matter What’s Next
Working directly with the organization’s teams will allow leaders to truly see how the wheels meet the road.
“The efficiencies, savings and increased experience they can offer isn’t going to be shown until they really work with their frontline teams on how the work is actually being done and designed,” Judge said.
Show Me the Money
Despite the interest in AI, many companies aren’t investing much money in it.
The Soundings report found that more than 80% of participants plan to allocate less than 10% of their learning and development budgets to AI training. More than 68% plan to put less than 10% of their technology budgets toward AI tools.
“Investment into AI technologies is still extremely low for the amount that AI is changing the way we work,” Judge said.
Which came first? The artificially intelligent chicken or egg?
Judge continued, “Companies and individuals still aren’t sure how they’re going to use and integrate AI into their organizations. How do you invest in learning and development for AI if you don’t necessarily know the way you’re going to use it?”
Leveraging Tech Without Fatigue
Judge recognizes that AI fatigue is real, especially when the focus is on the oversaturated market for AI tools.
“We don’t need to learn about more AI tools at this point because people are just getting overwhelmed and don’t know how to use them,” Judge said. “AI is personal and it’s human. Change management is human. As an industry, that’s where we need to focus: on workforce design and how we’re leveraging technologies and humans to redesign and deliver the work we do.”
