It's all about them

The business case and the tools for using generative AI are only getting stronger, says Sherrif Karamat, CAE president & CEO, PCMA and CEMA.

It can be easy to get caught up in the big picture when it comes to AI, including the dizzying speed with which tech companies like OpenAI, creators of the generative AI platform ChatGPT, have multiplied their value many times over in recent years, or the explosive growth of new AI-driven software platforms. But there’s another story unfolding, and that’s the rapid increase in the use of generative AI tools by non-tech companies. Less than 50 of the companies listed in the Fortune 500 are in the tech sector, but more than 92% of them use ChatGPT, according to OpenAI. In 2023, the number of times that Fortune 500 earnings calls mentioned AI, most frequently generative AI, grew by nearly 50% compared to 2022, according to the ‘Artificial Intelligence Index Report 2024’, an annual report created by Stanford University’s Institute for Human-Centered AI (HAI). At PCMA, we haven’t been sitting on the sidelines, either. In March 2023, we announced that, in collaboration with Singapore-based technology provider Gevme, we would fund Project SPARK, a generative AI-based tool developed for all facets of the business events industry by the business events industry. The software automated a growing list of business event tasks and processes, like creating agendas, session descriptions and bios, and repurposing event content, including videos into blog posts, social-media content, and educational materials. Over the next few months, Project SPARK evolved into Spark, as its capabilities grew to include analysing and interpreting complex streams of event feedback, including surveys, feedback forms, social-media interactions, and reviews, which could take event professionals days to sift through and synthesise – if they could manage to find the time to study it comprehensively at all. We have continued to expand Spark’s capacities to streamline logistics and provide sophisticated, accelerated feedback about participants’ preferences. A new ‘takeaways’ feature distills the most relevant and compelling insights from audio content, such as keynote speeches and panel presentations, and delivers it to event participants, so it is immediately available. Our goal in investing early and decisively in generative AI and Spark, I hope it goes without saying, is not to subtract a single human from the business events industry. In Spark’s first year, the business case for the use of generative AI has only got stronger. It gives a competitive advantage to individual event professionals and the industry by galvanising our productivity and providing more time and new ways to exercise our imaginations and creativity. And that, I believe, can only make our industry even more human. If you’ve not already experimented with Spark, I invite you to give it a try. Event professionals can sign up for a free version of Spark at pcma.org/Spark. Some Spark features are only available with a paid version.