By Claire at Slayte
You’ve seen the headlines.
"AI will transform events!"
"Planners, meet your robot assistant!"
"Everything is automated now!"
Cool. But also... slow down.
If you’re running events for a member-driven organization, you don’t need futuristic fluff. You need real tools that solve real problems without making your job harder—or weirding out your attendees.
So let’s clear the air. Here’s what AI can actually do for you right now—and what it still can’t.
What AI Can Do (and Do Well)
1. Tag and Categorize Sessions Automatically
You know how time-consuming it is to manually tag every session with themes, tracks, or disciplines?
Modern AI tools can do this based on the abstract or title, and they’re shockingly accurate. Especially helpful if you’re juggling hundreds of submissions or want to group content for different audiences.
Bonus: It helps attendees filter by interest on your mobile app—without manual data entry.
2. Match Reviewers to Submissions
Let’s say you’ve got 12 reviewers and 350 abstracts. Who should review what?
AI can scan reviewer bios and match them with the most relevant proposals based on shared language and subject matter. You stay in control—but get a smarter starting point.
3. Suggest Related Content to Attendees
If someone adds a session to their agenda, your mobile app could suggest others based on the same topic, speaker history, or behavioral patterns from past events.
It’s like “people who liked this also liked…” but for professional development.
Attendees discover more. Sponsors get more exposure. Everyone wins.
4. Summarize Proposals for Easier Review
Some abstracts are… a lot. Long, dense, and packed with jargon.
AI can create a short summary of each proposal for reviewers to scan before diving in. It’s not a replacement—but it’s a useful assistant.
What AI Can’t Do (Yet—and Maybe Never Should)
1. Replace Human Judgement
AI can suggest. It can rank. But it can’t understand nuance. Not like your committee can.
If two proposals look equally solid, it won’t know that one speaker ghosted last year or that another session fills a timely policy need. That’s your call—and always should be.
2. Handle Sensitive Member Interactions
AI doesn’t do tact. Or politics. Or historical context.
You don’t want it sending rejection emails, handling member disputes, or deciding who gets a speaking slot at your flagship event. Keep the people in the loop.
3. Set Strategy
AI doesn’t know your mission. Or your board’s priorities. Or what happened at last year’s annual meeting.
It can support your execution. But it won’t drive your vision. That’s still your lane—and always will be.
So, Should You Use AI?
Yes. But wisely.
Use it to make tedious work easier. To surface insights faster. To give your team a head start instead of starting from scratch.
But don’t hand over the reins. AI is a smart assistant—not a strategic lead.
Final Thought
AI can help you do more, faster. But only if it’s thoughtfully integrated into the tools you already use—and if it keeps your members’ trust front and center.
At Slayte, we believe in useful AI. Invisible when it should be. Powerful when it needs to be. And always in service of your work—not in place of it.
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Want to see how we’re using AI inside the Slayte platform? We’ll show you what’s real—and what’s just noise.
