Artificial Intelligence (AI) is changing the way we work, the way we live and the way we connect with the world around us. Companies around the world are discussing how best to implement AI into the workplace and within the events industry, AI is being used to create conference programmes, personalise attendee experiences, and streamline event operations. But amid all the innovation and efficiency, are we overlooking one important aspect?
AI’s growing environmental impact
The rapid growth of artificial intelligence carries a mounting environmental cost. AI data centres critical to powering chatbots like ChatGPT consume about 2% of global electricity, according to a study from the University of California Riverside and University of Texas Arlington. The International Energy Agency projects this demand will more than double by 2030, with AI as a major contributor. AI-optimised centres alone could see electricity usage quadruple.
AI’s environmental toll goes beyond energy usage. Data centres also use large volumes of water, especially during the training phase and for cooling servers. Most energy used by servers turns into heat, requiring water-based cooling systems. The same study estimates that a 20–50 question conversation with an AI chatbot can consume the equivalent of a 500ml bottle of water. Laura Kantor, founder of marketing company Climate Club, which helps companies to grow a sustainability focused business that she is concerned that people are just not aware of how much energy these systems use, specifically about the overuse.
She says: “It falls into the same category as mindless scrolling or streaming on your phone. Everything comes at a cost, but we rarely stop to think about it. With AI, because it feels so ‘invisible’, that awareness is even lower. Even the ChatGPT founder recently commented that all the extra “pleases” and “thank yous” are costing a huge amount in energy, which shows how small habits can lead to big consequences.”
Laura makes a conscious effort to be more mindful in the way that she uses AI, by asking more concise questions and only using it when it is necessary. She says: “I have a personal rule. If I’m good at something I do it myself. If I need support in areas, I’m less confident in, like coding or technical research, then I use AI to help.”
These demands pose challenges for companies pursuing net zero targets. According to an article in The Guardian, Google has seen emissions rise nearly 50% since 2019, largely due to data centre energy use and supply chain factors, jeopardising its 2030 net zero goal. As AI adoption grows, sectors like events already working to cut travel emissions, waste, and sourcing impacts must carefully balance innovation with sustainability.
AI trends and the impact on event industry practices
Since Chat GPT launched its image generation feature on March 26 social media has been awash with AI trends, namely the studio Ghibli trend, the Barbie Box Challenge and now the Jellycat trend. These trends are fun, unique and creative but, knowing the environmental impacts, should we be using AI in this way? Is it just adding environmental impacts that could be avoided? And does it show that this conversation needs to be happening faster?
Professionals in the events space are starting to speak out about these concerns. Joanna Routledge, sales and marketing director at Bray Leino Events has shared her concern about these trends. She first became concerned about the event industry’s use of AI when she was researching the impact of digital emissions for a pitch and was recommended a webinar by Adam Bostock of Small99. She says: “The wakeup call was how 40 questions to AI renders a whole litre of water unfit for human consumption – and that’s just copy based Ai. I’ve tried to keep on top of how the technology is developing and what I’ve learned has absolutely affected how I use it.”
She adds: “It’s fun to reimagine yourself as an action figure or whatever the next trend is but is it worth it? It’s easy to forget there’s an environmental cost to every prompt. Particularly when the impact is far away and the benefits are so immediate. But I hope that there is an increasing awareness of the footprint.”
As conversations around artificial intelligence continue to evolve, so too does the debate around its role in the creative industries. Joanna explains that people view AI as a tool, like photoshop, that can enable creatives to work more effectively efficiently or enable someone without access to traditional software to articulate a vision and in this way, it aids creativity. She says: “Do the tools themselves create pressure to jump on trends? No. Viral social and mainstream media does that, saturating feeds with samey content rather than giving space for unique thoughts and perspectives.”
She frames the understanding of the environmental impacts in a similar way to the evolution of how we understood the impacts of plastic. She says: “We’re at the beginning of a learning curve with this technology, same as we were when plastic become a household staple in the 50’s. There has been a massive shift in education, perception and understanding of the impacts of plastic on the environment. Hopefully there we will see the same change in awareness around Ai – just hopefully a hell of a lot quicker.”
Leading the change: responsibility and regulation
In terms of how companies should think about their use of AI she explains that it is up to every business to decide what responsible AI use looks like for them. Bray Leino Events, has established an AI task force who keeps the company up to date with the latest developments, updates their policy and establishes best practices. It is also about to launch further guidelines around responsible use that will help people to make better decisions. She says: “Our stance on anything sustainability related is collaboration over competition, so we welcome other agencies or third parties who want to get involved with this ongoing work. Let’s collaborate on making our industry better.”
Laura stresses that industry leaders and influencers have a vital role in shaping a more sustainable AI future. She says: “We need to stop glamorising AI as a shortcut for everything. Leaders can set a better example by showing how to use AI thoughtfully and everyday users need to build more awareness—just like we’ve done with issues like plastic waste or saving water.”
She also calls for regulation: “Governments should introduce guidelines before things spiral. Just look at how social media got out of hand. Companies need to focus on building energy efficient tools and be transparent about the environmental cost. And users need to take responsibility too, by only using AI when it adds value rather than just because it’s there.”
Ultimately, as AI becomes more embedded in our daily lives and industries, we must move beyond fascination and convenience to ask the harder questions about impact and responsibility.
