Our Strategy: AI and Beyond

Eamon Crosby | Co-founder & CEO, BriteBiz

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Dear Reader,

Before I begin, a brief word about who I am and why I am writing this. I am one of the Co-founders of BriteBiz since we launched in 2009. I have had the pleasure of leading this company through its initial stages, and through the exciting years of our expansion to thousands of users into four continents.

I hold a degree and a Master's in Science, and I trained as a Chartered Accountant with PwC. Since then, I have been working in the wedding and events industry for over twenty years. During my corporate training I worked with companies as large as Microsoft and Dell, and through my own companies I have worked with amazing clients in the events industry, from single operative professionals to some of the most respected high-end venues across Ireland, the UK, the United States, Australia and beyond.

I share this not for biography, but for context. With the rapid advancement of AI technology, we are currently living through the most transformative times in human history. We have been at the forefront of understanding and educating on the impact of AI in our industry.

Our understanding and knowledge of AI has allowed us to make strategy decisions in the face of AI transformation, and these critical decisions will allow us to best placed for the world of the future.

I have seen change through the digital transformation era, but what is happening now is different. This is a fundamental business shift that is going to affect us all, personally and professionally. All businesses need to make strong strategic decisions in the face of this rapid change.

We are living through the most transformative period in human history. Not the most transformative period in technology, or in business, or in our industry — in human history. The arrival of artificial intelligence is reshaping how every business in every sector operates, communicates, sells, and scales. The events industry is no exception, and at BriteBiz we have been thinking very deeply about what this means for our clients, our platform, and the next decade of our work together.

I want to share with you, openly and clearly, the strategic decision we have made — and why I believe it is the right one for the people who trust us with their businesses.

It is now commonly agreed by all experts in the industry, that old legacy systems (essentially every system built before the recent release of AI technologies) are not suitable for new AI technologies. Legacy systems were not built for AI software architecture.

We have recognised this requirement, and the need to rebuild the core structure of our platform. For that reason, we have decided to stop pushing new features into the current BriteBiz platform. We are no longer going to inject AI features into our existing architecture. Instead, we are building something entirely new — a platform designed from the ground up for the AI era. A platform for the future with a view to leading our industry.

This is not a decision we have taken lightly. The current platform has served thousands of clients faithfully for years. We have led our sector in features, in service, and in the relationships we have built. But the technology shift now underway is not an incremental one. It is a generational one. And meeting it requires more than a software update.

"It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent. It is the one most adaptable to change."

— Charles Darwin

Every software platform built before 2023 was designed for a world that no longer exists. They were built around clicks, forms, dashboards and rules — the assumption being that a human would sit at a screen and operate the software. That assumption is now obsolete.

The platforms of the future will be operated by AI agents acting on behalf of human users. They will require entirely different technical architectures — built around language models, embeddings, agentic workflows and real-time data, not click-paths and database tables.

I have had the honour of being invited to present to thousands of industry professionals about the future of business systems in our industry. In my talks, I describe the situation simply. Today's software platforms — could be described as horses. They have been the workhorses of business for two decades. They are reliable, well-understood, and they have carried the industry forward. But the future is not faster horses.

AI has brought about a whole different way of development that our team are expertly embracing. Formula One cars and horses are not better and worse versions of the same thing. They are different technologies entirely. They use different fuel. They are built on different engineering principles. They are operated differently. You cannot put a Formula One engine on a horse and expect it to perform. You cannot retrofit a horse to win at Monaco.

Bolting AI features onto platforms that were never designed for them is not the road to the future. The result, predictably, is software that feels confused — half automation, half manual, and not great at either. It is a horse with a turbocharger strapped to its back. It will not last.

"If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses."

— Henry Ford

Most of our competitors will not make this decision to fundamentally change the underlying architecture of the platform. It is too painful in the short term. It means slowing down on visible features. It means investing heavily without immediate return. It means having difficult conversations with clients who want the next button added to the existing screen.

We have decided to take that pain now, so that you do not have to live with the consequences of avoiding it later. Within a few short years, the events industry will be transformed. Bookings will be handled by AI agents talking to AI agents. Client onboarding will be conversational. Quote generation, contract drafting, supplier coordination, run-of-show planning — all of these will be reshaped. Platforms that were not architected for this world will struggle, and the businesses that depend on them will struggle with them.

We have led our sector with integrated CRM for venues and event professionals. We led on lead-to-contract automation. We led on the operational backbone that thousands of weddings, events and venues run on every weekend. We intend to lead again — and the only way to do that is to build for what is coming, not what was.

"The best way to predict the future is to invent it."

— Alan Kay

While we build, we are also actively educating the industry on what the future holds. Rather than ignoring the change underway, we are working to help our clients, peers and partners understand it.

I have been honoured to speak on the future of AI in the events industry at three of the most important stages in our world:

At each of these, the message has been consistent: this transformation is not coming. It is here. Those who understand and implement will win. Lean in and learn. The businesses that will thrive in the next decade are the ones that face the change directly, understand it, and adapt to it. The ones that pretend it is not happening — or that hope a few AI tools bolted on to old systems will be enough — will be left behind by clients, by suppliers, and by the next generation of competitors.

"You will not be replaced by AI. You will be replaced by somebody using AI."

— A truth of our time

Education matters because trust matters. We want our clients to make informed decisions about their technology stack — not just trust us blindly, but understand why our strategy is what it is, and why it is the right one for the future of your business as much as ours.

The current BriteBiz platform continues to operate fully, supported as always. Your bookings, your data, your operations — nothing changes. We will continue to maintain and support the existing platform with the same commitment we have always shown.

What changes is where we focus our energy. Every engineering hour we have is now being invested in building the platform that will carry our clients into the AI era. When it launches, you will be among the first to use it, and we will work with you carefully to transition your business onto it at a pace that works for you.

We have not set a public launch date, and we will not until we are certain we have built something genuinely worthy of being launched. The discipline of building correctly is more important than the rush of launching quickly. We will, however, share our progress openly with you as we get closer.

We started BriteBiz because we saw an industry that deserved better technology. We have spent years building, refining, and supporting the platform that has served you. We are now starting that journey again, with the benefit of everything we have learned, and with the urgency of the moment we find ourselves in.

This is the most exciting time in the history of business technology. It is also the most uncertain. We are not pretending to have all the answers. What we do have is a clear conviction about where the industry is going, the courage to build for it rather than against it, and the relationships with our clients that have always been the foundation of this company.

Thank you for trusting us with your business. We look forward to building the next chapter with you.

Eamon Crosby

Co-founder & CEO

BriteBiz