We’re living in the age of generative artificial intelligence (Gen AI). If you watched the Superbowl’s commercial breaks this year, you would have seen a significant amount of ads utilizing artificial intelligence to promote their product or company. Take, for example, Genspark’s contribution, where the script was generated by AI; Google, taking the opportunity to put us in the feels by showing AI-created imagery; and the Meta / Oakley partnership, which has resulted in AI smart glasses – each of these spots had the involvement of artificial intelligence in some way, shape, or form. It is changing the way we do business…but what does that mean for the event industry?
IBM defines Gen AI as “artificial intelligence that can create original content, such as text, images, video, audio, or software code in response to a user’s prompt or request.” While AI itself is not new — we’ve had assistants like Apple’s Siri and Amazon’s Alexa for years — Gen AI is different. It uses machine learning algorithms that mimic the human brain. Gen AI has been referred to as a large language model (LLM), meaning it can understand, generate, and process human-like text by analyzing vast datasets.
For many of us, AI feels like magic. You type in a few words and it spits out an entire video script, complete with timings and suggestions on music. Influencers like JunkBoxAi (we’re big fans!) create incredible content on social media, “blending art with AI.” But what can we really use it for? What problems can it solve? What are the risks?
Let’s take each of these questions, one at a time.
What could we use it for?
Gen AI can be a great tool for creativity! We’ve used it a lot for brainstorming and as a starting point for writing proposals, video scripts, campaign ideas, or coming up with fun names for anything and everything (custom drinks, breakout sessions, etc.). While we don’t typically have AI do the full write-up for any of these tasks, it’s a great place to start for inspiration and thinking outside the box. There are some teams who use AI to write everything for them: emails, communications, social media posts, blog posts, proposals, scripts, etc.
Gen AI is also great for creating summaries. For example, a complex contract or highly detailed production guideline from a property can be summarized by AI for a quick understanding of what’s allowed and what’s not.
Furthermore, Gen AI can create graphics/visuals, video footage, and audio, though these tend to need more prompting and usually some editing after the fact. We once used AI to create some mock swag for a presentation and, despite uploading the logo we wanted on the swag multiple times, it continually gave us t-shirt options with the wrong logo. In the end, our designer had to fix AI’s images for the presentation.
What problems can Gen AI solve?
In our experience, the biggest problem that AI can solve across this industry is time. It can save so much time. When AI is used to write copy for any number of use cases, it can save hours of the time it would have taken a human to write. The copy does still need to be reviewed for accuracy, which will require a human, but it still saves significant bandwidth. Many of the AI tools are now adding different tone options and can typically cut the text down if you ask.
What are the risks?
There’s a risk to anything worth doing, right? One challenge or limitation with AI is that it can create “hallucinations.” According to IBM, an AI hallucination “is nonsensical or altogether inaccurate but, all too often, seems entirely plausible.” Legal Dive reports on a story from 2023, when a New York lawyer cited false cases generated by ChatGPT in a legal brief. The lawyer used AI to provide him with additional cases that would support his filing. It was discovered that the cases ChatGPT provided were completely false and even included false quotes, along with internal citations. While many Gen AI tools have improved since 2023, this is a good reminder to always check what AI writes for accuracy.
Another challenge with AI is inconsistent outputs. Despite being prompted with the same inputs, Gen AI will provide varying results. While this may not matter in most cases, there are some where consistency would prove more helpful. See our tee shirt example above.
Bias, security, and privacy are additional concerns to be aware of. Gen AI is constantly learning, so the information you provide will be used for the model to learn. In terms of security / privacy, some AI models that are deployed within a business may not use the information for continued learning. Therefore, it’s important to always check the terms of use and make sure you aren’t divulging any client or proprietary information to a Gen AI model.
____
Events are an in-person, human experience. Here at Impact, we maintain that the dynamic experience of events can’t be replicated through technology, despite everyone’s best efforts during the Covid-19 pandemic. The event industry, perhaps more than other industries, knows that there is something magical when you get humans together in a room, and that doesn’t happen without other humans planning, coordinating, and producing that event. People in the event industry will not be replaced by AI, but some of their tasks will become more automated, completed more quickly, and streamlined to free up more time for those human interactions that keep us motivated.
Even if companies don’t know it right now, they are always going to need event professionals in our sneakers and show blacks, ready to make it all happen. In a way, we’re like AI magic, because from the attendee view it all just happens, but backstage there is a whole group of people working together to deliver IMPACT.
Related Posts
From Great Idea to Golden Reality
One thing I love about working on a creative team is that it doesn’t matter…
Six Benefits of Refreshing Your Website
As your company continues to evolve, your website must represent your latest…
