AI Agents Are Coming

This just in: AI agents are about to transform how business event professionals select destinations and venues. Not next year. Right now.

And destination and venue selection are squarely in their crosshairs.

What Are AI Agents and Why Should You Care?

AI developers are aggressively developing specialized digital assistants designed to take on complex tasks with minimal human intervention.

Unlike basic AI chatbots that simply answer questions, AI agents can:

• Research destinations across dozens of websites simultaneously
• Compare venue specifications against event requirements
• Generate comprehensive RFPs in minutes, not days
• Track responses and follow up with venues automatically
• Create side-by-side comparisons of options with minimal human guidance

Our industry survey revealed meeting planners currently spend 25-30 hours researching potential destinations and venues per event, evaluating just 5-7 options due to time constraints and workloads. With your help.

With AI agents, they'll evaluate 15-20 options in 5-7 hours. Without your help.

And they currently cost less than $30K to develop/deploy and less than $5K per year to operate.

Let that sink in.

The OSM - Oh Shit Moment

So what happens when an AI agent can:

• Compile more comprehensive destination information than your best salesperson
• Create perfectly formatted RFPs tailored to each venue's requirements
• Compare response data across dozens of properties in seconds
• Schedule and optimize site visit itineraries automatically

The uncomfortable answer: EventProfs might not need you for these tasks anymore.

The Data Doesn't Lie

Our industry research shows:

• 73% of event planners intend to increase their AI use in the next 12 months
• Tech-Forward Planners (25% of the workforce) already report 32% productivity gains with AI
• Even Relationship-Focused Veterans (18% of the workforce) are adopting AI for back-office tasks
• 76% of event professionals rank AI training as their top requested resource

This isn't speculative. This is happening.

So… Are You Obsolete?

Absolutely not. But your role is going to fundamentally change.

The question isn't whether AI agents will transform site selection by your clients (it will), but who will manage and benefit from this transformation.

And the really good news is that the first DMOs and venues to support these agents will capture a disproportionate market share as planners gravitate toward more efficient processes.

But you need to start moving now. Based on adoption patterns in adjacent industries, you probably have a 12-18 month window to implement your agent strategy before it becomes a competitive requirement rather than an advantage.

The Relationship Paradox

Relationship-Focused Veterans (18% of planners) express concerns that AI will damage personal connections.

The opposite is true.

When your team is freed from routine administrative tasks and data compilation, they can dedicate more time with clients to understand their objectives, solving strategic challenges, and delivering exceptional value experiences.

AI doesn't replace relationships. It creates the space for deeper ones.

Building Your Agent Strategy

Smart DMOs and venues need to be pivoting NOW from being information providers to becoming agent empowerers. Here's your playbook:

1. Create structured data now starting with an assessment
   • After your relationships, your data is your most valuable asset. It's time you treated it accordingly by investing in rendering your destination features, venue specifications, capacity charts etc into structured, machine-readable formats.
   • Ensure your content can be accurately retrieved by AI crawlers.
2. Become the trusted source
   • AI agents work best with reliable, structured information.
   • When agents can't find what they need, they'll rely on sources that consistently provide accurate data. That's YOU.
3. Build your own agent
   • Start with a focused agent for a specific use case (e.g., initial destination research)
   • Use commercially available tools with "chain of thought" patterns that minimize hallucinations
   • Layer on your destination knowledge through RAG (Retrieval Augmented Generation)
4. Focus on the human-AI partnership
   • Train your team to work alongside AI agents, not compete with them
   • Elevate your staff to become strategic consultants who leverage AI tools

What Does Success Look Like:

Imagine launching a simple AI agent that helps meeting planners search your destination database. The agent can answer specific questions about venues, create customized venue comparison matrices, and even generate draft RFPs.

This is all very possible right now.

The potential results? An increase in qualified leads and a massive reduction in staff time spent on routine information requests and low value RFPs.

Most significantly, conversion rates will increase because your sales team now focuses exclusively on strategic consultation rather than information delivery.

And what happens if you do nothing and wait? Again…looking at other industries like real estate, DMOs and venues without AI agent strategies by Q2 2026 will likely see a material reduction in qualified leads as planners shift to more efficient research channels and data sources.

The Next 90 Days: Implementation Roadmap

1. Assess your current data infrastructure to determine if your destination/venue information is structured for AI consumption.
2. Identify routine tasks that consume your team's time that could be handled by a commercial AI agent.
3. Start small with a focused agent application in the next 60 days.
4. Experiment with retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) to enhance general AI models with your specific knowledge base.

Let's be clear: AI agents aren't coming to eliminate DMOs and venues. They're coming to transform how business gets done by your clients. The question is whether you'll be the disruptor or the disrupted.

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