The trend hiding behind every AI company’s “meetup”
What we’re unpacking today:
The biggest community trend we’ve seen this year
How it’s different from “The Salesforce Playbook” of the past 5+ years
Common missteps we witness and how to avoid them
We—Carrie and Kelly from Team CMJ—use these interviews to explore trends, tensions, and issues related to community building (and those em dashes are human-written; no AI is used to create these newsletters).
We share more about our goal for these conversations in our “community newsletter experiment” post.
Missed the last newsletter on how we built our ethical AI guidelines? Explore it now.
Kelly: 👋🏻 We don’t always discuss client work here in the newsletter, but in 2026, we’ve noticed a big trend worth sharing: hypergrowth AI-native companies are majorly centering in-person events in their community strategies right now, and other companies are following suit.
Of course, in-person has always had its place alongside online brand communities. But what feels different today is that in-person isn’t an afterthought, an evolution of a community, or an add-on; it’s a central pillar in how online communities are being conceptualized and built.
This marks a big change in the work we’ve been doing for the last decade+, and we’ll unpack why—and what you can learn from it.
Carrie, how would you describe what we’re seeing?
A toddler spinning out in a toy car with the text “On my way!”
CARRIE: So what we’re seeing is a reallocation of energy and investment in genuine community building in-person versus hosting events for events' sake (though there’s a lot of that going on right now too; money down the drain imo). In fact, data from Forrester and other market research firms suggest that we’re not in any kind of “events renaissance.” Event budgets are plateauing and simply returning to pre-COVID levels, not surpassing them.
But there's a different way companies are allocating those budgets.
Community event budgets tend to be much smaller than trade shows and conferences, and you get a lot more bang for your buck with them if you play the long game.
So these events are showing up in traditional event budgets at all. But they're happening, big time.
According to CMJ Group research, 32 of the top 50 AI companies listed by Forbes have some kind of community program (not including conferences), and many of those are in-person meetups and ambassador programs.
This year, every single one of our clients has invested in some element of in-person community strategy, compared with previous years, when less than half did.
Oprah pointing to her audience with the text “You get an event!”
A few of the companies we’ve seen make especially large investments recently include Stripe (our client), Lovable, Gamma, Profound AI (also our client), Clay, and Rodeo (an app we love by the former COO of Hinge). They’re running ambassador programs, distributed meetup events, campus ambassadorships, in-person training cohorts, and more, backed by experienced community builders and leadership excitement.
And non-tech companies are in on the trend too, from fashion and retail (Arc’teryx, Bandit Running, Cotton On, LaDoubleJ, Hatch, the list goes on...) to agencies, memberships, and small brick-and-mortars hosting more local gatherings.
KELLY: Why do you think this is happening now, and not in years prior?
CARRIE: Right now, we have a convergence of AI LLMs, economic uncertainty, and low trust. This convergence is creating the need for more in-real-life investment to break through. Buyers are skipping a huge part of the traditional "nurture" in the marketing funnel, with 75% B2B buyers now completing most of their sales evaluations before ever talking to a human being. How do you make sure your brand isn't left behind? Let your biggest supporters do the talking for you. In-person becomes one of the few remaining effective ways buyers can feel a brand, form a personal connection, and cement trust. It's a combination of world-building, ~vibes~, and good old fashioned relationship building.
The bottom line is this: community building has never been more valuable. Bespoke, curated, real-life connection is the competitive advantage, and the fastest-growing companies can see that clearly.
KELLY: In past years, we often looked to ambassador or MVP/VIP programs from companies like Notion and Salesforce as strong examples of how to galvanize leaders around a shared purpose. But this wave of ambassador programs feels different.
CARRIE: Yes, and both of those playbooks are being actively rewritten right now after a period of staleness. Notion seems to be reinvigorating its community team and Salesforce shifted its Trailblazer community to Slack (!!!) and conducted its 3rd round of layoffs this year on August 6, most recently targeting community engagement and events).
For years, companies wanted to run “The Salesforce Playbook,” which was this: launch a discussion forum, start an MVP or ambassador program, run local meetup events, host a template library, tie results one-by-one to customer support, product feedback, and GTM motions (not necessarily in that order), then maintain.
The playbook of going from focus to expansion is still solid. It’s the spirit with which other companies tried to duplicate it that hollowed it out.
What’s different now is the push toward in-person-first, and I think that’s a sign organizations are getting back to what matters and is hard to ignore in person. And that’s the relationship knitting, hosting the conversation that can’t be had anywhere else, reinforcing progress and identity, and stewarding the real learning that happens more organically in person between real custmers, not paid staff.
But there are pitfalls to thinking an ambassador program or distributed event strategy will solve all your problems. And we’re seeing them with clients.
Bertha Russell from The Gilded Age saying, “You’ll need to pick a team.”
KELLY: Right. For one thing, it’s a ton of work to identify great leaders (who are also great event hosts and digital connectors), maintain strong relationships with them, and set them up for success, providing everything from event budget to design templates to marketing support and so much more. There are a ton of logistics in the beginning—and the beginning isn’t just the launch; it’s the whole first year of the program.
CARRIE: Exactly. Running a consistent program requires a lot of education, and that really surprises teams. One of our clients has a full-time team member dedicated to “enablement,” meaning training, resourcing, and ongoing education for ambassadors. It’s one of the smartest hires I’ve seen. They can quickly spin up new training programs, toolkits, tips, and templates and give their ambassadors the best training possible.
With many of our other clients, we come in as trainers for their community leaders. Even though leaders have a ton of energy and excitement, being a community leader isn’t their full-time job, and it takes skill. But it’s not hard to tap into their intrinsic motivation and give them the tools they need to gather people in a way that feels human and real, with a bit of training and guidance.
Without guidance like this, events risk feeling flat or salesy. A fellow community consultant recently told me they went to an event for an AI company in New York, which was really a sales pitch for their Claude MCP. They gave everyone fancy food, had an open bar, presented the tool, did a live demo, and then said, “Thanks for coming.” That probably cost $15,000, which could have been stretched over 5-10 better-led community-hosted events. It breaks my community-building heart.
KELLY: What do you think is next?
CARRIE: In the future, I think we’re going to see a lot of competition for great community leaders and ambassadors. Every brand will want the mover and shaker in each city or region, and they'll fight for them, just like they do for top-tier creators in gaming, fashion, beauty, and other industries.
We’ll see community builders working with different brands and taking their pick, which puts pressure on brands to invest right the first time around. You can pilot, but don’t cut corners relationally, or it will come back to bite you.
KELLY: Totally. This kind of thing moves at human speed, not AI speed. It’s all relational, from the relationships you’re forming with your leaders, to the relationships leaders are forming with members, to the relationships members form with each other that keep them coming back to events. The tech enables connection, but only to the extent that people actually show up, enjoy their time, and trust each other. That can’t be manufactured or rushed.
What are you seeing out there in the [AI-powered] community world? Leave a comment and let us know—we always love hearing what you have to say!
With Care -
Carrie and Kelly
