MPI held their Boots, Bolos & BBQ event at Four Mile Park in Denver, CO in June. Photos Courtesy of Jeanette Stensgaard

Any event and meeting planner can tell you the complexity of juggling everything that needs to be done when planning a company event. When travel is involved (and there almost always is), it adds another layer of logistics, such as flight booking, ground transportation and hotel accommodations. It should be no surprise then that Artificial Intelligence (AI) — like in many other industries — is coming to the rescue when it comes to managing travel logistics.

What is AI?

Simply put, AI is technology that enables computer systems and software to perform complex human tasks such as learning, reading, writing, creating and analyzing. Because there are so many different kinds of AI, it’s generally broken down into three classifications: capabilities, functionalities and technologies. Within these classifications are a myriad of types, from narrow, general and super intelligent to machine learning and robotics.

It’s used in almost every sector of business, such as transportation, healthcare, retail, banking, entertainment and E-commerce. The event planning industry is no different. When it comes to travel management, there’s one form that stands out: Generative AI.

How AI Can Help with Travel Management

Generative AI — a subset of narrow AI — analyzes patterns to generate new ideas and solutions. Within travel management, generative AI can benefit both businesses and travelers by:

Allowing planners to interact with AI-powered systems in the form of chat bots to book guests, create itineraries and assist with travel needs

Analyzing large amounts of data to provide personalized recommendations for flights, accommodations, local attractions and dining options

Providing real-time information like weather conditions and flight delays

Automating invoice and reimbursement management

Machine learning, however, is another form of AI that’s increasing in popularity when it comes to travel management. Amex GBT Egencia, a corporate travel software platform, uses this type of AI to deliver the most relevant flight and hotel search results along with the best pricing to help planners save time and money.

But how many companies are using AI for travel management currently?

It turns out, not a lot. At least, not yet.

Trust Issues with AI

Large corporate companies, especially in the health and insurance industries, resist using AI due to security concerns. But a lot of event planning companies in general haven’t delved into AI for travel management yet simply because the technology is so new.

Then, there’s the fear factor.

“The technology’s new, and for planners anyway, there is still a fear … when ChatGPT first came out, they heard that ChatGPT was hallucinating and all that stuff…” says Keith Johnston,  managing partner at i3 Events in Chicago, IL, and host of the Event Tech Pull Up Podcast. “Planners are always technophobes, right? And when you hear that on the front end, it makes them very leery to dive in with both feet. And so they’ve been dipping their toes in very slowly. So, with managed travel, that would be tough. I do not know too many people that are doing managed travel.”

Magdalena Bonnelly is the owner and CEO of Procurement Strategy Group, a full service corporate event management and procurement company in Dallas, TX. While she doesn’t use AI for booking flights or accommodations, she does use it for a few of her daily activities, like blog writing and marketing. When she needs ideas or inspiration, it comes in handy. “Sometimes, I don’t have a co-worker to run my ideas by, so I will plug them into ChatGPT,” she says. “I use it more for either idea initiation or feedback.”

She also has been experimenting with using AI for data analyzation in Excel spreadsheets and creating agendas. Using AI for travel management, however, Bonnelly says she isn’t quite there yet. “I still have yet to find an AI tool that will be comparable to human knowledge,” she says. “For me, using AI to book anything that requires a signature and a commitment, I personally would be very careful with that. I might use that kind of tool again for experimentation reasons. But for me, I would rather have a conversation with the sales rep to really negotiate something that makes sense for the client. Because what I’m seeing in the market right now is very generic and doesn’t leave the client with a lot of wiggle room.”

Jeanette Stensgaard, MBA, CMP, HMCC, is the chief brilliance officer of ShePlan Co., an event planning agency in Aurora, CO. Stensgaard says she is dabbling with using AI on the travel management side of her business, specifically when it comes to streamlining logistics like transportation and accommodations.

“Leveraging AI for travel data is probably the best way I would suggest doing that,” she says. “You’re just kind of looking up the data, optimizing flights and looking at what that looks like as a whole in order to create a budget for those. Concur is our travel management system that we use … and I know that they’ve got some AI tools coming down the pipeline, but I have not looked too deep into those.”

The biggest way Stensgaard uses AI for her business is event reporting. She dumps all of her event data into ChatGPT and asks it to create a report on things like attendee demographics and how to use that same data to cater to those demographics for a more personable experience for future events. “To do that without going through and painstakingly pulling that data and making my own inferences, it really saves a lot of time and bandwidth,” she says.

Embrace AI or Get Left Behind

Johnston — an industry veteran — says there have been three big technology changes in the event industry. The first one was the advent of the computerized event ticketing system, most notably Ticketron, in the late 1960s.

While mostly used for concert ticketing, there was an application for conferences. That, according to Johnston, was the beginning of technology in the event planning industry. Then in the late 1990s, online registration became all the rage for planners. AI, he says, is the next big technology.

“This is the one thing that will upend the event industry like nobody’s business. Planners are absolutely terrified that AI is coming for their jobs. And it isn’t. What’s coming for their jobs are planners that understand AI and use it,” Johnston says.

Stensgaard agrees. “I think the hospitality industry as a whole has to embrace AI,” she says. “We are too big of an industry to kind of leave it behind, right? Like it or not, there are going to be big pieces of that that are going to be implemented into the future. No matter what, we’ve got to make it work.”

The Future of AI

As AI becomes more dynamic in travel management, so will its ability to personalize the experience in a way that only humans could do before, optimizing itineraries based on individual travel behavior, preferences, schedule patterns and historical productivity data. While this ability is already here, the personalization of it all will become even more powerful.

Ronak Shah is the co-founder and CEO of Bizly, a meetings management software platform with a focus on small, employee-driven events. It streamlines the meeting planning process across organizational departments, including booking, registration and reporting. He sees the future of AI regarding travel management in the events industry a lot like what consumers use now to book personal travel.

“What I am seeing as the future is just like when you go to Kayak or Bookings.com and you have a tab for car rentals, flights and hotels, you’ll have a tab for events,” he says. “And you’ll be able to either describe in detail what you’re trying to do, or just look at offerings that are bundled for you and make a few selections, and be able to dynamically book that in a very scalable way. That’s what I see as the future of the space.”

Johnston sees a future where AI takes away all of the “busy work” planners have to do, eliminating the time-suck of small tasks so they can have more time to be creative. For travel management specifically, he says, AI will be able to tell you the most cost-effective destinations at any particular time of year, the best routes, and the ability to quickly research and book multiple flights for all of your attendees. “AI is a fantastic tool.  It’s actually going to make you a rock star. It’s going to make you be a better planner all around.”

Getting Started with AI

AI can be intimidating for planners who are late tech adopters. It’s best to start off slow. Johnston advises against using specific content and marketing AI tools because they require familiarity with the technology. ChatGPT, he says, is a great tool to begin with. “Getting good information out of AI is all about prompts. And so, you have to be a really good prompt engineer. And using ChatGPT is a good place to learn your prompts.” And if planners don’t know how to use ChatGPT, they can simply ask it for instructions.

The future of using AI for travel management is bright in the event industry. Its disruption is already being felt. But like with everything else, it requires an open mind and a willingness to learn the newest tools of the trade.

Just like with other technology, Stensgaard emphasizes that a big challenge is ensuring that AI doesn’t remove the personal touch from the events and travel industry. “Hospitality is all about relationships, and the human element is what makes our experience truly memorable.”   I&FMM