The New Moat: How DMOs Will Thrive in the AI Revolution

An essential guide for Destination Marketing Organization sales and marketing professionals navigating the AI transformation

Get comfortable with this: The traditional business event industry value proposition that has defined DMOs for decades is unwinding:

For years, a DMO's value proposition was built on things that were expensive and difficult:

• Producing high quality destination content required substantial investment
• Building business event client and venue databases demanded years of relationship-building
• Creating personalized event experiences and partnerships needed specialized knowledge
• Curating perfect site visits required deep local connections
• Developing event bid strategies, packages and RFPs took weeks of meticulous work

These "moats" entrenched the DMO role in the supply chain. Now, they're vanishing.

As AI tools increasingly automate these functions, the barriers that once entrenched a DMO's unique value are dissolving. What once took weeks can be generated in seconds. What once required an entire team might soon be handled by a sales executive with AI assistance.

According to the World Economic Forum's Future of Jobs Report 2025, we're witnessing a seismic shift: 39% of workers' core skills will be transformed or become outdated over the next five years. In the business events and tourism sector, this percentage climbs even higher.

But here's where most DMO professionals get it wrong: This isn't a threat. It could be your greatest opportunity.

Why DMOs Are Uniquely Positioned to Win with AI

The Harvard Business School recently completed a groundbreaking study called "The Cybernetic Teammate," examining how AI transforms team performance. The findings should energize every DMO professional:

• Teams using AI improved performance by 39%
• Individual professionals using AI improved by 37%
• AI-assisted teams were 3× more likely to produce top-tier solutions
• Teams completed projects 13% faster with AI assistance

But here's what's fascinating: The business events industry hasn't even scratched the surface of these possibilities. Currently, only 25% of event professionals are considered "Tech-Forward Planners" who are actively leveraging AI tools.

The majority remain hesitant.

Meanwhile, the World Economic Forum's research reveals that 85% of companies plan to prioritize upskilling their workforce by 2030, with 70% expecting to hire staff with new skills. Leading organizations have recognized that in a rapidly evolving technological landscape, workforce transformation is essential.

This hesitation coupled with the imperative to upskill creates your new competitive advantage.

The Five Actions Every DMO Professional Must Take Now

We've prepared the following five-step action plan to help you turn your adoption of AI into an amazing opportunity for yourself, your clients and your organization:

Each week we'll do a deep-dive on a step in the action plan for you to consider.

The End of Business as Usual

This just in: the business events industry is relationship-driven and slow to change. That's precisely why this AI revolution represents such an extraordinary opportunity for forward-thinking DMO professionals who commit to organizational reskilling.

The DMOs that will thrive won't be those with the biggest budgets or the most staff. The winners will be those that invest in upskilling their teams to leverage AI while enhancing their uniquely human strengths. They'll use technology to automate the routine so they can elevate the remarkable.

The choice is yours: Will you be among the early adopters who shape this future through strategic reskilling, or will you be forced to play catch-up?

This blog post incorporates insights from Harvard Business School's "The Cybernetic Teammate" study on AI adoption and team performance, and data from the World Economic Forum's Future of Jobs Report 2025.

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