The way people search for information is changing. Voice-activated assistants -- Amazon's Alexa, Apple's Siri, Google Assistant -- are increasingly integrated into daily life through smart speakers, smartphones, cars, and wearable devices. As these assistants become more capable, they could reshape how people discover and engage with events, with significant implications for organisers and ticketing platforms.
The shift from typing to talking
Voice search differs from text search in several important ways. When people type a search query, they tend to use shorthand: "comedy gigs London Friday." When they speak to a voice assistant, they use natural language: "What comedy shows are happening in London this Friday?" This shift from keywords to conversational queries changes the dynamics of search engine optimisation and content strategy.
Voice searches also tend to be more specific and more immediate. A person asking their smart speaker about events is often looking for something to do now or very soon, rather than browsing options for the distant future. This immediacy has implications for how events are listed and promoted -- being discoverable at the moment of intent is crucial.
The "zero-click" nature of voice search is another important difference. When you search on a screen, you typically see multiple results and choose which to explore. When you ask a voice assistant, you usually get a single answer or a very short list. This means that the top result has even more power in voice search than in text search, and events that are not in the top position may be effectively invisible.
What this means for event discovery
For event organisers, the rise of voice search creates both opportunities and challenges. The opportunity is that voice search could make event discovery more natural and frequent. A family sitting at home on a Saturday morning might ask their smart speaker what is happening locally that day -- a query they might not have made if it required opening a laptop and typing a search.
The challenge is that voice search favours a small number of results, potentially concentrating attention on the events that are best optimised for voice discovery while leaving others in obscurity. This could disadvantage smaller events that lack the resources to invest in voice search optimisation.
Structured data -- the technical markup that helps search engines understand event information -- will become increasingly important. Events that provide clear, well-structured data about their dates, times, locations, prices, and descriptions will be more easily surfaced by voice assistants. Those that do not may miss out.
The platform question
Currently, voice assistants draw event information from various sources, including Google's search results, Ticketmaster, Eventbrite, and local listings. The platforms that are best integrated with voice assistants have a significant advantage in this emerging discovery channel.
For smaller ticketing platforms and independent event listings, integration with voice assistants is both a challenge and an opportunity. If a platform can feed its event data into the systems that voice assistants query, it can gain visibility that might otherwise be monopolised by larger competitors. This is partly a technical challenge -- ensuring data is formatted and published in ways that voice assistants can consume -- and partly a strategic one -- building partnerships and integrations with the major voice platforms.
Google's Knowledge Graph and Events schema markup are particularly important. Events that are properly marked up in schema.org format and indexed by Google are more likely to be surfaced by Google Assistant, which powers a significant share of voice search queries. This is a practical step that any event organiser or platform can take today.
Conversational commerce
The logical extension of voice-based event discovery is voice-based ticket purchasing. If a voice assistant can tell you about a gig on Friday, it should also be able to sell you a ticket. This "conversational commerce" is still in its early stages, but it represents a significant opportunity for the events industry.
The technical and security challenges of voice-based purchasing are substantial. Verifying identity, processing payments, and confirming details all need to work seamlessly in a voice-only interaction. But the convenience factor is compelling -- the ability to go from "What is on tonight?" to "Book me two tickets" in a single conversation could significantly reduce the friction of ticket purchasing.
For this to work, ticketing platforms will need to develop voice-friendly purchasing flows that are secure, reliable, and easy to use. The platforms that crack this first could gain a significant competitive advantage as voice commerce matures.
Local and personalised discovery
Voice search is inherently local. When someone asks "What is happening near me this weekend?", the assistant needs to know where "near me" is and filter results accordingly. This localisation benefits events in areas where the user is located, potentially driving attendance at local events that might be overlooked in broader online searches.
Personalisation could take this further. A voice assistant that knows your musical tastes, your past event attendance, and your social connections could provide highly personalised recommendations. "Based on your recent listening, you might enjoy this band playing at a venue near you on Saturday." This kind of proactive, personalised suggestion could transform event discovery from a search-driven activity to an assistant-driven one.
Preparing for the shift
While voice search has not yet become the dominant method of event discovery, its growth trajectory suggests that organisers and platforms should be preparing now. Practical steps include ensuring event listings use structured data markup, writing event descriptions in natural language that matches how people speak, focusing on local SEO to capture "near me" queries, and exploring partnerships with voice platform providers.
The shift will not happen overnight, and text-based search will remain important for the foreseeable future. But the events that prepare for voice discovery today will be better positioned to capture attention and ticket sales as the technology matures.
Curious how tickts compares? See our side-by-side comparison of tickts vs Eventbrite: fees, payouts, and features for UK organisers.
