What Six Years of AI Taught Us (That LinkedIn Didn't) Presented by SeatGeek

AI dominates today's headlines and LinkedIn feeds, often framed as an overnight breakthrough powered by the latest generative model. But the reality of deploying AI in live sports businesses is far less glamorous and far more instructive. Six years ago, SeatGeek began building an in-house machine learning engine to solve a defined problem: how to value tickets accurately in a real time marketplace. The early gains were measurable. The harder lessons came later. In this session, Derek Zhou, Head of SeatGeekIQ, will explore what happens after the first wave of AI success. How can teams and organizations move beyond isolated pricing models to influence upstream decisions like event booking and scaling? How can forecasting inform season ticket strategy and long-term revenue planning? What changes when AI becomes embedded into daily operations rather than showcased in a demo? Drawing from six years of continuous AI deployment across major leagues and events, Derek will examine the evolution from tactical optimization to strategic modeling and share practical lessons for students entering the field, practitioners building AI systems today and teams looking to apply AI more effectively inside their organizations.