APAC planners embrace AI, but what comes after ChatGPT?

Adoption of generative AI tools among APAC event planners might have soared to 75% last year – but the real transformative potentials lie in the future beyond ChatGPT and Claude.

In APAC, the majority adoption rate is significant considering that it was under half (43%) in 2024. This is based on the recent Pulse survey of 167 planners in the Asia Pacific region by Northstar Meetings Group – organiser of The Meetings Show Asia Pacific – and Cvent.

A further 5% plan to incorporate the tools imminently and just one in five is yet to use the likes of ChatGPT, Bing, Bard, Azure, Claude and Project Spark.

With the technology’s promising potentials, we ask buyers and AI experts attending The Meetings Show Asia Pacific 2026 what they see in the future of of AI-enabled events.

Gen AI’s role in event planning

For Brooke Byrne, a signature events and strategic programmes leader at IBM Asia Pacific, gen AI has enabled the data-driven marketing organisation to “make quicker, data-led decisions with more confidence”.

“For instance, I use AI to help generate content based on information provided by our content and field marketing team. If I can provide a synopsis, speaker notes, full flow of a roundtable agenda and send it back to the marketing manager at, say, 70-80% readiness, there's a huge value add on their side as they're able to spend more meaningful time with their business stakeholders. It allows us to get to market quicker. We have also started using AI to summarise content delivered during an event, which has helped us deliver more personalised experiences.”

Rather than asking how AI helps planning, self designated “digital futurist” Nicky Verd, who is talking about AI at The Meetings Show Asia Pacific, suggests reframing the question to “how does AI change what an event is and what an event agency becomes?”

“Because AI is not just improving event planning. It is reshaping operations, agency structures, audience engagement models and revenue logic… When I think about AI and events, I don’t see better software. I see a structural shift.”

Beyond gen AI

Alexander John, regional director business development at MCI Middle East, says it’s not just generative AI that’s infiltrating event planning in the region.

“We have integrated AI extensively across our operations and it supports the full event cycle,” he says, “From automated delegate interactions and FAQ handling to onsite applications that streamline registration, navigation, and support services.”

AI augmented speakers?

Verd agrees that, right now, AI offers event planners operational intelligence, smarter agency management, personalised audience engagement and real SOI beyond vanity metrics – topics she will expand on in her Talks in Ten session at the show.

But, in the next 12-24 months, she believes AI will move upstream from operations to strategy – think event simulation before execution (Colja Dams will also be talking about this in his Digital Doppelganger session at The Meetings Show Asia Pacific), hyper-adaptive live experiences, AI augmented speakers and content, and more.

AI, sustainability to define future

John added: “AI adoption will remain at the forefront of industry transformation alongside sustainability. Both areas will continue to evolve incrementally, with significant improvements expected year after year. AI will enhance personalisation, predictive planning and operational efficiency, while sustainability will increasingly influence how events are designed, executed, and evaluated. The convergence of these two trends will shape the next era of meetings and events.”

AI is a key topic on the education programme at The Meetings Show Asia Pacific 2026. Paula Rowntree from the Business Events Network presents Event AI Tools in Action at 10am on Tuesday 14 April, Colja Dams, CEO of VOK DAMS Worldwide delivering the day two opening keynote at 10am: The Digital Doppelganger, and Nicky Verd’s sessions take place at 11:30 on day one and 13:00 on day two.