What if you could talk about your event experience with an AI agent on your cab ride to the airport?
For its 2026 Spring Summit, Builder Innovator pivoted from its traditional survey strategy to using AI-powered surveys and conversational AI agents, powered by Marcus AI. For a hosted-buyer construction event, zeroing in on the right connections is critical, and the new survey tools are instrumental in delivering a deeply personalized experience and upgrading the event design overall.
“We got about 2.5 times our standard response rate and significantly more substantial responses,” says Ryan Mahoney, senior director of operations at Builder Innovator. Within two hours, the team had received more responses than it typically generated using a traditional survey platform in the past.
Overall, the post-event survey drew 83 responses out of 427 sent, a 19.4% response rate, and served up a +52 NPS and 82% positive sentiment rating. In comparison, the summit’s fall 2025 post-event survey drew just 21 total responses: six from sponsors, 15 from guests.
A new pre-show survey broadens connections.
Built into the show app, the pre-event survey is necessary for creating a personalized agenda and “goal sheet” as well as scheduling meetings. In the past, it gathered basic information and asked attendees about the product categories they were interested in. Mahoney says this approach is too limiting now.
“You’re looking through a pinhole,” he says. Attendees may know the buzzwords associated with what they need without knowing what solutions are actually available. For the October event, AI is helping the show bring a wider lens. The team is preloading the AI platform with available sponsor information and asking questions that aim at identifying broader themes and areas of business, such as single-family and multifamily construction, luxury homes, smart-home automation, etc., and AI does the connecting, widening the range of relevant sponsors.
AI agent post-event surveys dig deeper.
The goals behind this part stayed the same—identifying the pain points, highlighting best products and presentations, the likelihood of return—but the richness of responses and the overall survey experience changed dramatically.
“Instead of offering a blank box, we were able to drill down and get insightful feedback,” says Mahoney.
The survey is set up so that if respondents give one-word answers, it wraps up quickly, but if they are happy to keep sharing, the AI agent continues the interview to a logical conclusion, with some going for 10-15 minutes. Text and talk were both available, with most respondents choosing to text. A dedicated staffer followed up with attendees sharing specific concerns.
A feedback-based event redesign.
Beyond building better connections, the surveys also helped the Builder Innovator identify a pain point that affected the event experience. Multiple attendees said the 15-minute meetings often ran long, making it hard to get to the next one. For the October event, the meetings will be 20 minutes long, with five minutes for transition.
What’s next.
“It’s crazy how far we’ve come from a one-sentence question and trying to make sure that we don’t ask more than 10 questions because people will leave without finishing,” he says. “This is so new to us, and we’re still in the process of figuring it out. I’m really curious to see how much more we can do to fine-tune our guests and sponsor experiences.”
Check out more from the Survey Says series in our Performance IQ channel.
Image Credit: iStock/MicroStockHub
