Skift分析：AI重塑会议行业的双刃剑效应——提升需求还是削弱人际连接？

Skift Take

AI may turn out to be the best demand driver meetings have had in years. But attendees will increasingly discover events through chatbots, plan their schedules with AI, and arrive accustomed to digital interactions. Delivering the human connection they seek could prove harder than the industry assumes.

As the entire world spends more time talking to AI chatbots, more people are craving a chance to talk with humans. Caesars Entertainment Chief Sales Officer Michael Massari has been keeping a close eye on the rise of AI, and he believes that the increase in AI usage will fuel demand for face-to-face meetings.

Massari pointed to a prediction from entrepreneur Mark Cuban, who warned in June 2025 that AI-generated video would soon become so convincing that people would struggle to distinguish what is real.

Cuban predicted an “explosion of f2f engagement, events and jobs” as people increasingly seek authentic human interaction.

Massari told Skift Meetings during IMEX America 2026 in Las Vegas that he believes AI will make meetings “even more important.”

As digital interactions become easier to fabricate, meeting someone face-to-face could become an increasingly important way to establish credibility and build trust. Oddly enough, one of the biggest names in AI is even leaning into the human trust element: Sam Altman, a co-founder of OpenAI, is behind an initiative called World that aims to verify whether someone is an actual human being. The system, which scans someone’s eyes and face, has already registered more than 18 million humans as of mid-October.

Using AI to Find Places With Real People

Meetings may be poised to surge in popularity due to AI, but there’s an interesting twist to consider: Attendees are using AI to find their meetings. New research from Freeman shows that 20% of prospective attendees have used AI to discover events. And of those who turned to Claude, ChatGPT or another model, 53% actually changed which programs they chose based on recommendations from AI.

Once they find an event, a majority of attendees are hoping that AI will be able to help them design their time on site. Two-thirds of respondents in the Freeman research said they want AI to help build their schedules and recommend people to meet. While the meetings industry has focused on personalization, AI models will have a much deeper understanding of an individual’s interests and objectives for a meeting. Research at the University of Michigan shows that AI models can predict personality traits and key behaviors as well or better than a person’s closest friends and families. Why ask a colleague which session to attend if Gemini can spit out the answer faster?

How AI Is Reshaping What Attendees Expect From Other Attendees

Professionals aren’t just using AI to find conferences, though. The typical worker spends approximately 87 minutes each day talking to AI, according to BambooHR. And for younger professionals who will make up the next generation of attendees, AI does a lot more than handle administrative tasks. Roughly 20% of young adults between 18 and 21 are using AI for mental health support, according to a study conducted by researchers at Brown University School of Public Health, Harvard Medical School and RAND, a nonprofit research organization.

Sociologist Sherry Turkle believes that more AI use is eroding our ability to deal with people. “I think we’re deskilling ourselves from being able to deal with people,” Turkle said in a recent appearance on “The Ezra Klein Show.” “People start to see chatbots more like people. People start to be disappointed with people when they don’t behave like chatbots.”

That may create the biggest question mark hanging over the industry’s future: As attendees grow accustomed to machines that are willing to offer frictionless agreement, how can meetings help encourage the kind of healthy disagreement and dialogue that can shape more valuable meetings?