Wordly, which was implemented at Knowledge 2025, provides instant translation, as well as transcription services. Photo courtesy of ServiceNow

A peek behind the curtain of ServiceNow’s massive artificial intelligence-based event known as Knowledge reveals a veritable wizard with the emerging technology. Kurt Smith, the senior director of strategic events at ServiceNow, pores over data to suggest which sessions might best suit attendees — and subtly point those conference-goers to touchpoints advantageous to the tech giant.

“Knowing what we know about you and knowing what you’re interested in, we can get to hyper-personalization faster than we ever could before,” says Smith, whose resume includes previously running events at Salesforce, Cisco and SAP.

When producing an event attracting more than 20,000 tech enthusiasts from around the globe to Las Vegas, ServiceNow cannot afford for its attendees to get lost in the crowd as it presents itself as a leader in AI. Smith’s tactics, which are comparable to how the consumer industry attempts to match customer preferences with revenue goals, are the next step in the evolution of business events.

Tahira Endean, MSc, CITP, CMP, CED, author and co-founder of The Strategy Table, as well as head of program at IMEX — arguably the event industry’s most influential trade show — has been dabbling with AI for a long time. Working at a government agency in British Columbia, Canada, the Vancouver-based Endean organized a technology summit about a decade ago featuring Raymond Kurzweil, a computer scientist sometimes referred to as “The Godfather of AI.”

“Fast forward … and everyone’s freaking out about AI,” Endean says. “This isn’t new. It’s just exponentially easier to use, and it’s in everything that we do.”

Therein lies the opportunity and fears surrounding AI. There is no escaping it, whether you are signed into ChatGPT, searching the Internet, shopping or just listening to music.

With a few prompts, the technology can devise a whole business or marketing strategy, suggest ideal agendas for attendees and supply the content to maximize attendance, among many other capabilities. On a smaller scale, AI helps us spell better, catch grammatical errors and capture a desired tone when writing.

But as smart as the technology is, AI can’t do it alone, says Bob Mitchell, a content consultant for events, principal/ founder of Mitchell Partnership Alliances. There still needs to be that person pulling the strings, relying on AI as a tool and not a replacement for the good old-fashioned human touch.

Wordly, which was implemented at Knowledge 2025, provides instant translation, as well as transcription services.

Pre-Event Engagement

Jessica Montefusco, CMP, president and chief experience officer at Wicked Experience Design, a boutique corporate events planning agency, sees AI as the first draft of the content she’ll submit for clients. “I use it for know-before-you-go or reminder emails,” she says.

Marketing is a common use of AI among entrepreneurs who don’t have a large staff — Wicked Experience Design has three employees, including Montefusco. Compiling information and presenting reports isn’t necessarily easy now, but requires less manual labor due to technological advances.

ChatGPT and Google Gemini are among the most commonly used commercial-grade AI platforms. Planners can use them for free for the basics, or pay a monthly subscription for enhanced versions. Because AI is a learning tool, it is meant to improve the more a person or company uses it by capturing the company’s approved verbiage and tone.

But in order for the AI to mimic an organization’s voice, it needs a starting point. That’s just the start of where humans come in. Challenges arise when teams start relying too much on the technology and don’t provide the appropriate quality control, says Endean.

“We’re so exhausted by all of the things that we are fed on a constant basis that we don’t know if they are authentic or not,” she says. “Nobody wants to feel like they’re being lied to or manipulated. We need humans to be talking to other humans.”

To Endean’s point, a 2024 Global Wireless Solutions (GWS) research report found that Generation Z is more skeptical of AI than Millennials and older generations who appear willing to use the technology if it improves their productivity. Edelman, a public relations and marketing consultancy firm, found that Gen Z members actively seek out brands that share their values.

Losing that human connection can cause short-term and long-term consequences for corporate events, Montefusco says.

“At the end of the day, attendees crave personalization and the human touch and all of the things that AI can’t produce,” says Montefusco.

AI can suggest the best agendas to maximize attendance as well as help attendees with networking. Photo courtesy of ServiceNow

ShowTime

Once attendees are onsite for a show, AI has its chance to shine.

Within the confines of a hotel, convention center or unique venue, the content presented will have all of the qualities audiences crave.

• Keynote speeches and panel discussions will (or should) be exclusive content presented by respected figures in their industries.
• Networking opportunities present chances to mingle and drive new business and solutions.
• Chance encounters in line for food or the restroom can become spontaneous lightbulb moments.

“The real value in meetings is the fact that we are together with other humans to have honest dialogues about things that could potentially change the world,” says Endean, who just released a new book, “Our KPI is JOY: How Live Events Catalyze Happiness, Productivity and Trust.”

Human interaction is what drives attendance, and it’s the job of planners like Smith to use all of the tools available to ensure attendees make the most of the time there.

Smith and Endean liken their efforts to event app recommendations for sessions or activations to how Netflix or Amazon will suggest titles or goods based on past preferences. “What we’re trying to do in real time now is match up your CRM [Customer Relationship Management] profile with your event profile,” says Smith. “Now, we’re going into a really interesting space.”

Peggy O’Flaherty, co-founder and CEO of Vinly, a tech startup using AI to help people build and sustain meaningful relationships, takes it a step further. “It’s almost like dating apps because dating apps very specifically curate an introduction to a person based on attributes,” O’Flaherty says.

AI matchmaking can take an attendee’s profile and filter through the role roster of participants to a select few that they are likely to hit it off with, notes O’Flaherty. An attendee can then use AI to craft a warm introduction — one of the most powerful forms of everyday content — to set up a meeting at the conference, she adds. The AI assistance is particularly helpful for individuals who are not confident in their writing or are naturally shy, continues O’Flaherty.

Dave Deasy, chief marketing officer at Wordly, an AI-powered translation agency, says the technology has essentially eliminated the language barrier at events at a fraction of the cost of human translators.

Offering more than 60 different languages with real-time translation has made Wordly an in-demand company at conferences and other functions like government operations and church services. Wordly, which was among the 2025 Inc. 5000 list, now has more than 5 million users and achieved more than 200% sales growth over the past three years.

“We live in a global world, and there’s a strong appetite for cost-effective ways to make it easy for everyone to be able to communicate,” says Deasy.

Smith has been impressed with implementing Wordly at Knowledge. Not only does the technology allow speakers and attendees to use their first language and understand each other, it also allows individuals with hearing challenges to follow along through its transcription service.

“We get a lot of bang for our buck,” says Smith. “We no longer need to use human translators 99.9% of the time.”

Deasy says the most common use is attendees following along on their phones, but planners can also share the transcript in real-time on stage.

In addition to the wide array of available languages, Wordly has cut down the lag time on translation to a fraction of a second, adds Smith. “There used to be a second delay, and now it’s 1/100th of a second delay, so you don’t even notice. You wouldn’t even know that it’s going to the cloud and coming back down that quickly.”

Meanwhile, IMEX records more than half of its education sessions and uploads key takeaways and complete transcripts to the event almost immediately through the AI-based Snapsight. With 15,800 participants, it is unrealistic to expect attendees to make all of the programming at IMEX, and Snapsight allows all of the delegates to still have access to the education, says Endean.

That said, Endean says the system only goes so far compared to seeing a speaker in-person. “Reading a full transcript of the best session is not the same as sitting in the room and watching that speaker connect with you,” she says. “The reason you remember that speaker is because that speaker made you laugh or cry.”

Over Time

Mitchell, who came into events through his media background, says planners and company marketers need to come into their events with the mentality of a TV producer. They need a strategy to disperse their content to as wide an audience as possible in a user-friendly manner.

“Content for events, conferences and trade shows are so underutilized,” Mitchell laments. “And they are so underutilized because the events industry looks at itself as a one-and-done proposition.”

Keynotes, presentations and sessions are prime sources for blogs, podcasts, social media posts, white papers and more, says Mitchell.

Mitchell adds there are many affordable programs that quickly transcribe and edit content that can be posted on an event app, website or different platform that continues the conversation after the event.

“I always say, ‘Think like a content company; act like a media company,’” says Mitchell, adding to the chorus that it’s up to humans to use AI to their advantage. “Technology is not a panacea. You need to have an editorial plan.”

Smith isn’t particularly fond of the term “multi-channel” but says AI makes it easier to reach audiences regardless of their generation or the platform they use. In this regard, it can help move event planners into a new era of communication, he says.

He notes too many presentations rely on PowerPoints and cookie-cutter videos, comparing it to reading the Sunday “New York Times.” AI can facilitate content into myriad formats to capture the largest audience possible.

“A lot of event presentations and content are still in that format; it’s still very analog in nature,” Smith says. “Everything now is TikTok, and short and fast. We’re moving quickly to that so we can embrace those formats and also continue to attract that audience that we really need to attend.” C&IT