Artificial intelligence is here, and it is not going anywhere. Topping the short list of biggest trends on the show floor, InfoComm is embracing AI—beginning with QSC | Q-SYS’s CEO Joe Pham’s keynote about what Pro AV can do to embrace AI and other insightful discussions from Pro AV thought leaders on where the advancements in AI are taking the industry.
And then there is AVA.
AVA AI, powered by Open AI, is new to the InfoComm app and is a comprehensive guide to the show floor. “Ask AVA” can help InfoComm attendees find exhibitors, educational sessions, each day’s full agenda, and where to find transportation—all of which are aptly timed with the ongoing construction making the Las Vegas Convention Center a bit of a labyrinth.
With AVIXA serving the Pro AV industry, it was pivotal to be part of—and stay ahead of—the AI revolution. “As an industry association, we wanted to be ahead of the AI ball game,” explained Kapil Kher, AVIXA’s SVP of IT, on AVA AI’s origin. “We launched something very external, which is a virtual assistant—a true virtual assistant. It's not a chatbot, it's not a guided chat structure. It's literally AI, so it understands natural language. You can talk to it very normally as you would to each other.”
You won’t be able to “Ask AVA” anywhere else but the InfoComm app, as AVA is the brainchild of AVIXA, designed for InfoComm and, eventually, its many other shows. “That was also one of our focuses,” Kher continued. “I brag about AVA a lot, but AVA is completely homegrown, home built, by AVIXA IT. It's not an off-the-shelf product we took and customized for our needs. We built it on OpenAI's large language model, but we built it completely ourselves.”
Located right on the app’s landing page, InfoComm guests and exhibitors can speak or type to AVA AI and, in a matter of seconds, have show-related information at their fingertips, facilitating a more engaging experience and easier trek around the show floor.
Per Kher, AVIXA wanted AVA AI to be very focused on InfoComm. In order to do that, Kher and his team, despite a few roadblocks, homed in on the most important verticals to start. “We took verticals of what we wanted to answer first,” he explained. “It answers transportation information because bus routes are complicated, and people are just looking for quick answers.
“So, it's transportation, it's exhibitor info, it's everything about exhibitors, about the show, as well as education sessions and agendas,” he continued. Remarkably, as more people ask AVA AI questions, Kher has seen AVA get smarter over the weeks leading to InfoComm, and AVA AI is able to narrow its focus and lead attendees to, for example, five control solutions or five LED displays they want to see, while being completely unbiased and arbitrary.
AVA AI is just touching the surface, and Kher is excited for what AI will bring to the Pro AV industry. “It's going to change the world,” he concluded. “My favorite [quote] is ‘AI won't replace humans, but it will replace humans without the knowledge of AI.’ You need to be AI forward.”
