The Meeting Professionals International Q1 2026 Meetings Outlook found that 70% of respondents regularly used generative AI, up from 43% a year earlier and just 22% in late 2023.

However, the same MPI research found that only 33% of respondents rated their ability to use AI to deliver meaningful events as good or excellent.

The opportunity for live-events professionals is therefore becoming clearer: understanding where AI can genuinely improve an experience or workflow – and where established technologies and human expertise still do the job better.

The practical AI revolution

For many event professionals, AI's most immediate impact is happening behind the scenes.

A PCMA survey of business-events professionals found that 91% were using AI in some capacity. Content creation and summarisation was the most common application, cited by 46%, while 35% were using AI for data analysis and reporting.

Those applications can include analysing attendee data, tracking event performance and generating reports. PCMA also found that some organisations were beginning to explore predictive analytics for areas such as attendance forecasting and personalisation.

The distinction between established and emerging uses matters. AI can help people interrogate data or generate content, but not every automated event process is AI. Registration systems, scheduling tools and automated check-ins, for example, existed long before the current generation of AI technology.

Making events more accessible

One of the clearest applications of AI at live events is happening in language accessibility.

At ISE 2026, Technology Partner KUDO provided AI-powered live speech translation and captions across several stages and conference rooms for the fourth consecutive year.

Attendees could scan a QR code and listen to translated audio or read live subtitles on their own devices. KUDO's current event platform supports AI-generated audio and captions in more than 70 languages.

The technology also illustrates why successful AI deployment is not simply a matter of adding an algorithm. At ISE 2026, KUDO CEO Fardad Zabetian's session One Size Doesn't Translate All explored how venue-specific terminology, industry language and speaker profiles can be used to improve AI translation.

That is a useful lesson for other AI applications too: context matters.

New tools for creative teams

AI is also opening up creative possibilities in areas such as content generation, visual production and interactive experiences.

Generative tools can accelerate ideation and asset creation, while machine-learning techniques can assist with processes elsewhere in the production workflow. The important distinction is between AI-assisted production and the idea that AI can replace the creative and technical expertise behind a live show.

The same applies to audio. AI-assisted processing is appearing in professional audio products and workflows, but live sound remains dependent on system design, acoustics and the decisions of skilled engineers.

At ISE 2026, this relationship between emerging technology and human creativity extended across the programme. The Live Events Stage examined the technologies behind major productions, while the session More Than a Stage explored automation, robotics and new creative tools in stage and set design.

Keeping the human in the loop

The rapid adoption of AI does not mean audiences want technology to take over the experience.

PCMA's 2025 EMEA Engagement Survey, based on responses from 321 event professionals, found organisers simultaneously focusing on AI and on creating stronger face-to-face experiences. PCMA EMEA Managing Director Jaimé Bennett argued that technology should amplify human connection rather than replace it.

That principle is particularly important in live events. The attraction of a concert, festival or performance is precisely that something is happening in front of an audience, in real time.

AI is most valuable when it supports that experience: helping teams understand information more quickly, making content accessible to more people, assisting creative workflows or taking repetitive work away from event professionals.

From AI hype to practical value

ISE 2026 reflected that more nuanced conversation. Its AI Megatrends programme explored not only AI's impact across pro AV but also its limitations, challenges and potential negative outcomes.

For the live-events industry, that is becoming the more useful question. It is no longer simply: what can AI do?

It is: where does AI make the event better?

As adoption accelerates, the organisations that answer that question well will be better placed to use AI as another tool in the production kit – rather than a technology in search of a problem.

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Further reading

Find out more about live events, audio, lighting and staging at ISE

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