How Apple’s AI Update Will Impact Events

Apple unveiled its new artificial intelligence (AI) system, Apple Intelligence, at its 2024 Worldwide Developers Conference. Apple will fully integrate Siri into the system experience, and through a deal with OpenAI, ChatGPT will be available on its devices.

The company said these updates will offer a more personal experience and simplify and accelerate everyday tasks. For example, an event planner can ask, “When is my CEO’s flight landing?” Siri will find the flight details and cross-reference them with real-time flight tracking to give an arrival time.

For event marketers, this new technology is both an opportunity and a challenge. The software will summarize emails, prioritizing what it feels is most important and deprioritizing anything the system does not deem important. Event marketers will need to personalize content to ensure it reaches the top of one’s email box. 

“Event marketing will have to be optimized for AI scrapping. A higher volume of richer context could put your event in front of the right audience,” said Nick Borelli, marketing director of Zenus and PCMA’s AI facilitator. “Consider using superlatives that might trigger prompts like ‘What are the best three events for x industry?'”

An Assistant-Like Research Tool in One’s Pocket

Borelli says marketing is just the beginning. “A lot of the new features benefit those working in the field with assistant-like research tools in their pocket. As one of the most stressful occupations, anything that gives more time back to organizers will have a greater impact than other industries that will also benefit,” he said.

A new feature is an updated event ticket design. It includes maps, an event guide with restaurant recommendations, and more. Plus, Safari will automatically detect and highlight important information like the address and phone number of a hotel your attendee may be staying at. 

“Wayfinding with GPS and voice powered by AI means you’ll get natural directions to exactly where you want to go. If the event apps are primarily used as a repository of event information in a mobile-friendly environment, AI reading a website for salient information can beat it. This might shift event apps to double down on innovation around AI matchmaking as their main value,” Borelli said.

Apple Watch Updates

The new operating system for the Apple Watch is getting features that may interest event attendees. A new app uses AI for speech recognition and translation. There will be live updates for events and third-party apps like Uber. An alert will warn users of bad weather. 

Interoperability is another feature. Emails, calendars, text messages, and other apps are all interwoven. 

Apple Opens Its Interface

Apple is opening its largest developer interface to create apps and other web capabilities. This will spur development to harness the power of event apps and event tech in general. 

Plus, iPhone video and photography will be of higher quality. New photo-editing tools will help remove unwanted objects and people from photos easily. 

Apple is mobilizing AI, said meeting event tech expert Corbin Ball. “iPhone improvements to Siri, the focus on phone personalization, priority notification. The power for AI to assist business professionals, including event professionals, will be at our fingertips,” said Ball.

Apple Offers Writing Help

Apple Intelligence will power several writing features. Built into the next OS updates, Writing Tools will allow for proofreading, rewriting, and summarizing tech. Summarization will be available on the notes and phone apps, allowing users to record, transcribe, and summarize audio. Once a call has ended, Apple Intelligence will generate a summary with the biggest takeaways.

Apple Intelligence will also introduce priority messages and notifications in iMessage. Notifications will be stacked in order of importance, and longer-written notifications will be summarized. A new section at the top of the mail app’s inbox will display the most urgent emails, such as a boarding pass for an upcoming flight or an important meeting.

Skift Meetings is interested in learning how you will use these new Apple features Please email [email protected] with your examples.