If you’ve ever been tasked with planning a company offsite, a sales kick-off, or even a 'simple' team dinner, you know the soul-crushing grind that is venue sourcing. It’s a special kind of purgatory. You spend hours, no, days trawling through Google, sending out dozens of RFPs (Requests for Proposal) into the void, and then trying to compare apples to oranges with the few quotes you actually get back. It's a full-time job on top of your actual full-time job.
I've been in the marketing and events world for years, and the process hasn’t changed much. It’s always been a bottleneck. So when I heard about a tool called Nowadays.ai, which claims to be the “first AI for corporate events,” my inner cynic immediately perked up. Another 'game-changer'? Sure. But then I saw their client list—Google, Amazon, Notion, Stripe—and thought, okay, wait a minute. Maybe there's something here.
So I decided to take a proper look. Is this just another fancy search aggregator, or is it genuinely a new way to handle one of the most tedious tasks in business?
So, What Exactly is Nowadays?
In the simplest terms, Nowadays is an AI copilot designed to take the entire messy process of finding and negotiating with venues off your plate. You don’t just search for venues. You give the AI your event brief—number of people, budget, room requirements, vibe, you name it—and then it goes to work. For you.
Think of it less like a search engine and more like a tireless, hyper-efficient event coordinator who happens to be a robot. It contacts venues around the world, negotiates rates and concessions via email and phone, and brings the best, fully-vetted options back to you. It’s not just finding phone numbers; it's having the conversations. This thing is also an IATA certified AI travel agency, which adds a layer of legitimacy and capability that most platforms just dont have. It’s not just booking a room; it's managing a core piece of your travel and event logistics.
Visit Nowadays AI
The Familiar Pain of Planning Events
Before we go further, let's just sit with the pain for a moment. Remember the last time you needed to book a block of hotel rooms? The follow-up emails. The vague responses. The hidden fees. The sinking feeling that you’re probably not getting the best deal because you don’t have the time or frankly the energy to haggle over every line item.
It’s a process that punishes the busy and rewards those with infinite patience. Nowadays aims to flip that script. The platform's whole reason for being is to automate that busywork, freeing up human planners to focus on what actually matters: the event's content, the attendee experience, and the strategic goals. Not whether the conference room includes a projector or if that's an extra charge.
How Nowadays Actually Changes the Game
I was skeptical, but the approach here is genuinely different. It’s not about just giving you a list of hotels. It’s about the actions it takes.
Your Personal AI Negotiation Bulldog
This is the secret sauce. The AI doesn’t just find places; it actively negotiates. It leverages data from thousands of previous negotiations to push for better rates, ask for concessions (like free Wi-Fi, discounted A/V, or a welcome reception), and generally act as your advocate. It's like sending a seasoned pro to do the haggling for you, except this pro works 24/7 and never gets tired of sending 'just one more follow-up' emails.
From Wasting Weeks to Making Decisions in Hours
The time savings are the most obvious benefit. The Nowadays homepage literally says “Stop wasting weeks sourcing venues.” And from what I see, that’s not an exaggeration. The manual process of research, outreach, and follow-up can take 20, 30, even 40+ hours for a single event. Automating that condenses the timeline dramatically. You send a brief and a few days later, you get back negotiated proposals. It’s a fundamental shift in workflow.
A Central Hub for Your Entire Event Stack
It's not just about the initial sourcing. The platform aims to be an all-in-one solution. Once you’ve selected a venue, you can manage contracts and run payments directly through Nowadays. This is huge. It prevents the all-too-common scenario where the information from the sourcing phase gets lost in translation when it’s handed over to finance or legal. Keeping it all in one place reduces friction and, honestly, a lot of potential mistakes.
But Let's Be Critical: The Pros and The Cons
No tool is perfect, right? As an SEO and traffic guy, I've seen countless platforms promise the world. The key is to weigh the good against the not-so-good.
The Upside is Hard to Ignore
The benefits are pretty clear. You save an enormous amount of time. You likely save money because an AI trained on thousands of data points is probably a better negotiator than you are (no offense). You get access to a global inventory of venues, not just the ones in your existing network. And the response times are quick. For any business where time is money—which is, you know, all of them—this is a compelling proposition.
Let's Address the Drawbacks and Concerns
Of course, there are potential downsides. The first thing that comes to mind for many is the loss of the “personal touch.” Some people argue that building a relationship with a venue sales manager is important. And I get that. But I’d counter-argue that Nowadays handles the impersonal grunt work, which frees you up to build relationships where they matter most—with your attendees and stakeholders. The AI is a tool, not a replacement for your strategic oversight.
Then there's the cost. While the Basic plan is free, the more powerful Explorer plan comes with a 10% service charge. This might seem steep to some, but you have to weigh it against the potential cost savings from negotiation and the immense value of the time you get back. If the AI saves you 30 hours of work and negotiates 15% off your venue cost, that 10% fee pays for itself instantly.
A Closer Look at the Nowadays Pricing Tiers
The pricing structure seems designed to let you try before you fully commit, which I appreciate. It’s broken down into three main levels.
| Plan | Cost | Best For | Key Features |
|---|---|---|---|
| Basic | Free | Small teams or single, one-off events. A great way to test the platform. | 1 city search, 10 RFPs, AI assistant, negotiated rates, contract & payment processing. |
| Explorer | 10% Service Charge | Growing teams or companies planning larger or multi-city events. | Everything in Basic, plus 3-4 city searches, 10 RFPs per city, CSV export, shared portal, and Slack support. Requires a $250 refundable deposit. |
| Enterprise | Custom | Large organizations with high volume event needs and a demand for customization. | Unlimited everything, personalized options, 24/7 support, custom features, and dedicated travel management planning. |
My take? The Basic plan is a no-brainer for anyone who just wants to see how it works for a single event. The Explorer plan is the real workhorse for most serious businesses. The 10% fee is an investment in efficiency. The Enterprise plan is for the big leagues, the Amazons and Googles of the world who are running events constantly.
My Final Verdict: Is Nowadays Worth It?
After digging in, I’ve moved from cynic to cautious optimist. Nowadays isn't just another tool in the already cluttered event-tech space. It feels more like a category creator. By focusing on the single most painful part of the process—the negotiation and sourcing—it provides immediate and obvious value.
It won't plan your agenda or write your keynote speech. It won't network for you. But it will claw back the dozens of hours you used to lose to logistical drudgery, and it'll probably save you a chunk of your budget in the process. For me, that’s not just a nice-to-have. In today’s world, that’s a strategic advantage.
If you're still on the fence, the free Basic plan makes it a pretty low-risk experiment. And let’s be honest, it's probably more effective than the 27 browser tabs you have open right now for 'Hotel Conference Rooms Downtown'.
Frequently Asked Questions about Nowadays.ai
- Is Nowadays.ai only for large corporate events?
- Not at all. While it's powerful enough for huge companies, the free Basic plan is specifically designed to be accessible for smaller teams, startups, or anyone planning a single, smaller-scale event. It scales up and down.
- How does the AI actually negotiate?
- It uses a combination of natural language processing to send human-like emails and can even make phone calls. It draws from a massive dataset of past negotiations to know what concessions are reasonable to ask for and how to best frame the requests with different types of venues.
- What does the 10% service charge on the Explorer plan really cover?
- It covers the premium service layer: managing searches across multiple cities, handling a higher volume of RFPs (up to 40), providing dedicated Slack support, and giving you access to a shared portal for your team. It's the fee for moving from a self-serve tool to a more managed service.
- Can I still have the final say in the negotiations?
- Absolutely. Nowadays acts as your copilot, not the pilot. It does the legwork and presents you with the best-negotiated options. You are always the one to review the final terms and sign the contract. You're in complete control of the final decision.
- Is the $250 deposit on the Explorer plan truly refundable?
- Yes, according to their pricing page, the $250 is a refundable deposit. It's likely in place to ensure that users of the more intensive Explorer plan are serious about booking an event.
Conclusion
Tools like Nowadays.ai represent a significant shift. For years, we've accepted that event logistics have to be a manual, time-intensive struggle. This platform challenges that assumption directly. By automating the most repetitive and least creative parts of the job, it doesn't make the event planner obsolete; it makes them more strategic. And in this industry, having more time to focus on strategy and experience is the ultimate competitive edge.
