Updated: 2/2/2023
We’ve seen artificial intelligence advance in leaps and bounds in various industries in 2022 — from the popular ChatGPT’s and AI-powered art, to even a Chinese company that recently released a song by an AI singer which was streamed a record-breaking 100 million times across the internet.
With AI technology advancing at break-neck speeds, how will it impact the ticketing and events industry? We will explore the most popular recent developments of AI use in the industry and what we believe will soon emerge.
Here are five ways AI is transforming the ticketing industry:
Dynamic Pricing
Perhaps the most popular AI-use case, but also the most controversial is artificial intelligence used in the Dynamic Pricing Model. Artificial intelligence is helping ticketing services find the right pricing strategy for the right situation.
While airlines have used dynamic pricing for more than a decade, the entertainment and events industry has been a bit later to the game. Dynamic pricing allows venues and ticket sellers to match their prices to demand and other factors, such as presale, ongoing sales results, news about the artist, and search request trends, an artificial intelligence system synthesizes data to supply recommendations on best pricing.
Ticketmaster began using AI in 2016 for their "Verified Fan" feature, which uses an algorithm to identify genuine fans versus bots or resellers. However, Ticket Master’s more recent AI-powered dynamic algorithmic pricing called "Platinum Tickets" has caused outrage among some fans as tickets can be expensive when there is high demand.1
The AI algorithm used by Ticketmaster to set prices for Platinum Tickets is similar to how an airline or hotel chain prices tickets or rooms. Meaning that prices vary significantly depending on when they are purchased and how many people are buying them. The dynamic pricing model has caused frustration among fans who have seen tickets for their shows sell at extremely high prices.
However, dynamic pricing can also have benefits for both fans and venues. It allows venues to more accurately set prices based on demand, potentially leading to more revenue, and can also enable fans to potentially save money by purchasing tickets at lower prices when demand is lower.
| Advantages and Disadvantages of Dynamic Pricing Using AI | |
| Pros | Cons |
| Adjusts ticket prices in real-time based on multiple factors, maximizing profitability | This might lead to customer dissatisfaction due to frequent price changes |
| Helps to sell out events more effectively by lowering prices when demand is low | Requires a large amount of data and high-quality algorithms to work effectively |
| Can potentially increase overall ticket sales | Predictive accuracy can vary, potentially leading even to some losses |
For better or worse, machines will continue to quickly identify patterns and inform pricing decisions for ticketing.
Upselling & Cross-Selling
AI can help utilize your past event and consumer data to enhance your future events. Many large-scale companies use artificial intelligence to power their ticketing platforms, by tracking the kind of attendees they have to up-sell and cross-sell.
Artificial intelligence can be used to analyze data sets for concerts, sporting events, and theater tickets, such as:
- Face value ticket prices vs resale prices
- How fast tickets have sold
- Historical concert attendance stats
- How well tickets historically sell at a given venue.
- How well do tickets historically sell in a given city
Event organizers and ticket vendors can build nuanced customer profiles by combining information such as historical data of past event attendance, responses to post-event surveys, or even information as simple as providing an email to a website but not making a purchase, and match those profiles with future events and other offers.
With customer data, organizations can pair traditional cross-sell models with artificial intelligence to understand future customer behavior and choose channels in which to engage them. The majority of consumers (83%) are willing to share their information to create a more personalized experience.2
Investing in personalization to build customer relationships and create a better experience can pay off well. Personalization can persuade an existing customer base to spend more on related goods and services through cross-sale and up-sale recommendations. Approximately 9 out of 10 consumers are more likely to shop with brands that supply offers and recommendations that are relevant to them.2
Besides tickets, artificial intelligence solutions can help with selling concessions and merchandise by selecting products relevant to the tickets in the purchaser’s online cart, encouraging impulse buying.
Boost Upsell and SimpleTix are two examples of AI-powered solutions that can help platforms seamlessly upsell merchandise, discounts on future purchases, season passes, or memberships. SimpleTix estimates that upsells can increase a business’s revenue by 10-30%.3
Predictive Analytics
Selling a ticket does not end with the purchase. Artificial intelligence can help event organizers better understand where their patrons are in the patron journey, even helping to predict and mitigate no‑show trends down to the seat.
Seatcycle is a real-world example of this AI use case. With historical data and trends, artificial intelligence systems can predict the who, where, and when that might affect how full a venue may look for different performances. This technology can help improve venue mapping and ensure that entertainers and event managers are confident a venue will be beneficial for them.
Beyond predictive analytics, Seatcycle offers a chat function that allows event organizers to gauge the possibility of a patron’s attendance; sometimes, all it takes is an automated reminder an event is coming up. Ticket holders can even be incentivized to share their status, and if they need to return the ticket, vendors can offer a refund or a donation.
In an interview with INTIX4, Mike Lorenc, the head of Google's ticketing, said:
ML is showing great promise in predicting demand for certain shows/artists in different markets. The ability to analyze — in real-time — inputs such as video views on YouTube, search trends on Google, streams, and social media activity along with past purchase history has the potential to impact not only optimal venue capacity but also pricing models for yet-to-be announced shows.”
AI can also forecast how patrons may arrive at the venue, both by arrival over time and through different entrances to help adjust queue processing. This information can also help with procurement planning for stocking categories such as merchandise, food, and beverage.
Combining this with technology like geofencing can provide another layer of direction, future event advertisement, boost fan engagement, and invite patron feedback to understand and address potential pain points.
Facial Recognition
Access control has been rapidly improving through multiple digital methods, evolving from scanning paper tickets to using a patron’s phone to today’s contactless ticketing option. Now we are even seeing the emergence of ticket verification through a face scan.
ASM Global, one of the largest entertainment producers in the world, has announced plans to introduce facial verification payments at some of its major venues in partnership with technology provider PopID. The rollout will utilize advanced facial recognition technology at venues such as stadiums and theaters around the world.
ASM Global CEO and President Ron Bension said, "PopID's dynamic technology and solutions will allow us to even further revolutionize the event experiences of the future, ensuring that every guest interaction is secure, speedy, and seamless."5
Most likely, VIP ticket holders will be granted a more personalized event experience while the technology is in its early stages. Eventually, modern facial recognition solutions may allow for faster queue processing.
However, there are a few drawbacks of facial recognition, including more steps in the ticket purchase process to capture the customer’s face and its patterns, customers may be unwilling to opt-in to facial recognition, and more hardware and/or software may be required during the check-in process.
Ticketing organizations may want to consider if the value of using this technology for access control outweighs the obstacles involved in making customers feel safe handing using their biometric information.
Chatbots
The conventional chatbot is a dime a dozen, popping up on websites all over the internet. And yet they have fallen short of the lofty expectations we have set for them, sometimes leading to a frustrating experience for customers.
74% of customers prefer chatbots while looking for answers to simple questions, and have proven their value to businesses as well, by saving businesses an estimated $8 billion in 2022.6
Today’s chatbots must evolve to supply the value expected of them. With rapid improvements in natural language processing (NLP), chatbots could help with customer support, assist those with disabilities to complete a ticket purchase, or be integrated into physical ticket‑selling kiosks.
Some examples of voice bots include Alexa, Siri, and Google Home, which you might already own. These bots can integrate with different services and make performing web searches or ordering from online marketplaces a breeze. And they can be combined with voice authentication, which has the potential to provide better security and customer service.
Additionally, we've seen recent chatbots, like Chat GPT grow immensely better than in years past, and highly intelligent and connective AI chatbots grow in power and potential every day.
In the ticketing sector, we’ve seen the emergence of chatbot templates designed specifically around event and ticketing scenarios. For example, Engati has a ticket booking chatbot template and Makerobos has an Event Management Chatbot.
These chatbots are able to manage the flow of information and answer questions from various event stakeholders such as volunteers, speakers, exhibitors, and attendees. These questions may include details about ticket sales, booth rentals, keynote speakers, parking, event timing, facilities, and WiFi access.
Chatbots help to efficiently address these inquiries as they can affect people's decisions to participate in the event and purchase tickets. Ensuring that these questions are promptly answered is crucial to the success of an event.
Maruti Techlabs suggests creating a chatbot from scratch or getting one configured from a reliable chatbot platform, to use for customer assistance, bookings, registration, multilingual events, e-commerce, attendee engagement, navigation assistance, and alerts & reminders.7
Chatbots can even help with resolving refunds, make ticket transfers faster and easier, and assist with data collection through reminders for pre and post-fan surveys.
Conclusion
With the emergence of so many innovative and industry-disrupting AI advancements, we can expect to see these solutions grow and make ticketing and events more convenient for patrons.
Our list includes just a few implementations of the advancing AI technologies within the ticketing domain that we’ve seen in 2022, however, we suspect that this is just the beginning. The IDC forecasts global AI spending to grow past a half-trillion dollars in 20238, so who knows what exciting new use cases and proofs of concept we will see in the future.
As the ticketing and events industry continues to evolve, AI plays an increasingly significant role in transforming how we experience and manage events. To improve your event ticketing operations, you must partner with a company that understands the ins and outs of the fintech sector.
At Softjourn, we specialize in developing custom event ticketing software solutions that leverage the power of AI to optimize pricing strategies, enhance customer engagement, and streamline operations. Our expertise in the ticketing industry, combined with our innovative approach to technology, enables us to create tailored solutions that address your unique needs and help you stay ahead of the competition. So, when you're ready to take your event ticketing experience to the next level, look no further than Softjourn as your trusted partner.
