AI Everywhere: Are We Overdoing It in Ticketing?

Doesn’t it annoy you? Suddenly AI is everywhere. Generic thought pieces flood LinkedIn. Friends name drop ChatGPT in every chat. Even vacation plans come pre-packaged from an AI. Not every creation or tool needs artificial intelligence. Sometimes a human story or a simple tool does fine. A hand-crafted website can feel more special than any generic AI page. So why are we in ticketing so fixated on slapping “AI” on everything? Let’s step back from the hype and look at what really matters in ticketing technology – where AI does make a difference (and where it doesn’t).

Do Your Digital Homework Before Chasing AI
Before chasing AI, let’s face a truth: many organisations haven’t mastered the basics of digital transformation. We tout futuristic solutions, yet still wrangle Excel exports and manual processes. Digital maturity isn’t about chasing trends — it comes from steadily adding business value through proven improvements.

Consider 2025 realities:
• About 60% of U.S. businesses still rely on Excel for critical functions
• 75% of logistics leaders admit large parts of their processes are still analogue
• More than 40% of all work could be automated with today’s tech, yet it isn’t

Despite cloud software and AI tools, many companies are “still operating like it’s 2005.” While 91% have digital initiatives, only 30% of digital transformations fully succeed. Most fail because they “digitise their chaos” without fixing processes. The result: “automation theatre” — fancy dashboards, but behind the scenes, spreadsheets still fly by email.

The lesson? Get your digital house in order first. Modernize basic workflows — reports for the board, discount code uploads, partner contingents — with reliable, user-friendly tools. Digital maturity comes from solving pain points, not hyping buzzwords. As Simon Weber said at this year’s TBF: “Manual exports ≠ real-time decisions. Integration ≠ ownership. You can’t control what you can’t see.”

“Digital maturity isn’t about chasing trends — it comes from steadily adding business value through proven improvement”

Stop Putting “AI” in Front of Everything
Every product today is marketed as “AI-powered,” whether it truly uses AI or not. In ticketing, too, vendors rebrand routine features as “AI this” and “AI that.” But let’s be clear: just because something involves a computer doesn’t make it AI.

Real AI means machines performing tasks requiring human intelligence — learning, pattern recognition, decision-making under uncertainty, natural language understanding. Not just if-then rules or basic statistics. As Jonathan Cohen of Robocap noted: many companies claim to have AI, but “they might have an algorithm, not machine learning or neural networks.” Almost one-third of companies hyping “AI” lack real capabilities — “AI washing” that risks becoming as hollow as greenwashing.

The problem? Unrealistic expectations and eroded trust. Not every tool needs the AI label. Well-crafted rule-based systems can solve problems effectively. Overhyping undermines credibility and makes real innovation harder to spot.

Call it AI only when it beats the status quo on speed, clarity, and relevance. If it doesn’t feel smarter or faster than what buyers used five minutes ago, it’s not value.

“Without data, AI is useless”

Data Is the New Gold: What to Do Before AI
If AI is the glitter, then data is the gold beneath it. Without data, AI is useless. Without digital maturity, data is locked away in silos, manual exports, or vendor black boxes. This is where the real homework lies.

Forward-thinking organisations in ticketing already show what it means to take control:
• Bad Bunny in Puerto Rico: Tickets restricted to residents by combining local coupon codes with digital ticketing. Not AI magic — smart data use.
• Schalke 04: Introduced NFC ticketing linked to fan IDs, cutting fraud and speeding entry, even for season tickets with chip cards. No AI, just data in practice.
• Universities & sports clubs in the U.S.: Segment fans based on purchase behavior, churn risk, and loyalty — running campaigns on live ticketing data, not static lists.

These examples prove: control of first-party data lifts experiences to the standard outside our industry. AI can then amplify what already works — predicting churn, adjusting offers, automating retention. Without the basics, AI is just noise.

“Not every ticketing pain point needs AI”

Keeping Our Focus (and Keeping It Human)
The real goal? Winning the experience game and letting technology handle complexity so people can focus on the human side — curating experiences, building fan relationships, making strategic decisions.

Not every ticketing pain point needs AI. Many need better UX, smarter workflows, tighter collaboration, or integrated marketing within the ticketing platform. That’s where digital maturity matters — and where vivenu focuses its roadmap. Just look at our work in audience segmentation.

Yes, AI has potential. But it’s most powerful when it supports staff — not sidelines them. Used thoughtfully, it saves time, handles routine work, and lets teams focus on the human touch that makes live events great.

“AI should help build better experiences, not distract from essentials”

Where Could AI Really Help Ticketing Next?
There are exciting frontiers, if tackled with purpose:
• Personalised Marketing: Use behaviour and demand signals to surface the right event and seat first. If it doesn’t shorten the path to “Buy,” it’s not personalisation.
• Smarter Support: 24/7 AI agents could answer ticketing questions in natural language — escalating to humans only when needed.
• Bot Detection: Anomaly detection could automatically flag suspicious purchases or bots in real time. • Better In-Venue Experience: AI could recommend food, predict crowd flow, and personalise content. The Golden State Warriors already use 100M+ data points to tailor each fan’s experience

These are areas where AI could help. But the bar must remain high: does it solve a real problem better than existing tools? If yes, great. If not, skip the hype.

Conclusion: Data First, AI Second
Technology is a means, not an end. AI should help build better experiences, not distract from essentials. But before AI can deliver value, businesses need strong foundations: clean, accessible, actionable data.

Without data maturity, AI is just theatre. With it, you unlock control, insights, and future-ready growth. So let’s be clear: In ticketing, data is still the gold. AI is only worth its shine if you’ve done your digital homework first. Data first, experience next, AI as the multiplier.

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