What does AI actually look like in event marketing?

The events industry loves to talk about AI - tools, trends, and what’s coming next. The real story is that AI is already in motion, in the day-to-day work of organisers and marketers.

This was a key message at AEO Forums 2026, where a panel of industry practitioners shared how their teams are approaching AI.

The panel agreed that the most successful applications tend to focus on removing friction from everyday work, rather than being complex or experimental.

Across their combined experience, a clear pattern emerged. AI is proving most valuable when it helps teams reclaim time, improve workflows and make better use of the data and content they already have.

Speaking on the session were:

• Ashley Hamilton, Group Director of Product Development at mdg (previously Tag Digital)
• Meera Somji, Co-Founder of Grow This Event
• Lisa Taylor, Divisional Marketing Director at Hyve Group
• Sam O’Connell, Regional Marketing Director for UK and Global at Easyfairs.

The changing role of the organiser

Events have traditionally operated on a simple assumption. Organisers create the platform and bring people together, while exhibitors and visitors are responsible for finding each other.

That expectation is shifting.

Attendees increasingly arrive with clear objectives and limited time. They want to know that attending will help them solve a problem or meet the right suppliers. Some visitors are already turning to AI tools to help make those decisions, for example by pasting exhibitor lists into a generative AI model and asking who they should meet.

This highlights an important shift in behaviour. Visitors do not think in filters or categories. They think in problems. They want solutions to specific challenges and they want to identify the most relevant people quickly.

AI can act as a more natural interface for that process. Instead of browsing through long exhibitor lists, attendees can describe their needs and receive tailored recommendations for exhibitors, sessions or meetings.

The impact goes beyond convenience. When visitors plan meetings in advance, they arrive with a clearer sense of purpose, often leading to more meaningful conversations and greater value for both attendees and exhibitors.

Creativity at scale

Another area where AI is having a noticeable impact is creative production.

Marketing teams supporting events now produce content across multiple channels including email, social media, advertising and websites. Each campaign requires numerous formats and variations, particularly as audiences become more segmented.

AI is helping reduce the time spent on repetitive production work. Tasks such as resizing large sets of marketing assets, generating variations of copy or translating campaigns into different languages can now be completed far more quickly.

This is not replace designers or copywriters, instead it allows creative teams to focus on higher value work such as campaign concepts, storytelling and strategy.

In a marketing environment that is increasingly crowded, that human creativity remains critical.

The hidden cost of lost information

Some of the most practical uses of AI are internal rather than customer facing.

Many organisations lose a surprising amount of time searching for information. Documents are stored in multiple locations, processes exist in different formats and knowledge often sits with individual team members.

This creates a constant flow of small interruptions. People ask colleagues where to find templates, how to complete certain tasks or which version of a document is correct.

AI assistants trained on internal knowledge can help centralise this information. Instead of searching through folders or waiting for responses, employees can ask questions and receive answers almost instantly.

The result is fewer interruptions and faster decision making across teams.

Removing repetitive processes

A similar principle applies to documentation and training.

In many organisations, processes are explained informally and repeated frequently. Each time someone new joins a team or encounters a task for the first time, the same explanation is given again.

AI powered documentation tools can capture processes automatically and convert them into step by step guides. These guides can then be shared with colleagues, exhibitors or speakers.

This reduces the need for repeated explanations and makes processes easier to follow for everyone involved.

What this tells us about AI in events

Taken individually, these examples may seem relatively small. A task completed more quickly or a process made easier to follow.

But together they point to a broader shift in how AI is being adopted across the events industry.

The most successful implementations start with a clear problem rather than the technology itself. They focus on improving workflows that already exist and removing friction from everyday tasks.

Most importantly, they support human work rather than replacing it. AI handles repetitive tasks, information retrieval and production work, allowing people to focus on creativity, judgement and relationships.

For an industry built on human connection, that balance matters.

AI will not change the core purpose of events, which is bringing people together. What it can do is make the work around those connections more efficient, allowing organisers and marketing teams to spend more time on the experiences that matter most.