RunSignup, the US-based registration and technology provider for endurance events, has become the first platform in the mass participation event space to live-demo an AI-based commerce transaction, also known as ‘buy in chat’.
While the functionality is currently a prototype, it signals a move toward using natural language conversation to complete event registration, including collecting necessary participant data, waiver agreements, and secure payment processing.
The initial prototype is focused on simple ticket events via the TicketSignup platform, with future implementations planned for more complex calendar-based ticketing and RunSignup event registration.
Bob Bickel, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of RunSignup, said “We are incredibly excited about the new, more interactive future for events. Today’s demo of buy in chat for tickets is just the beginning.”
He added that the company is continuing to build out its own chat infrastructure, while its payment processor, Adyen, works with major Large Language Models (LLMs) to ensure transaction processing standards are met.
Bickel continued, “In the end, we’ll be able to offer event participants a unified experience where they can identify an event of interest and register in a quick, user-friendly way, without ever navigating from their chat. This means easier discovery, fewer distractions, and lower dropout rates for our customers.”
Currently, the buy in chat functionality operates inside RunSignup’s own chatbot. However, the company is working to expose public race data to major LLMs, such as ChatGPT and Google, via an MCP (Model Context Protocol, an open-source standard). This will enable event discovery and purchase to take place through one single, secure chat.
RunSignup’s work on buy in chat follows the release of its free RunSignup AI Chatbot (Beta) for customer support. Since then, more than 400 races have enabled their own custom-branded AI Chatbot via the platform.
Recent updates to the chatbot include:
- Training the Chatbot on common race questions, such as ‘How do I resend my confirmation email?’ and ‘How do I transfer my registration to another runner?’, making it more informed and reducing training time.
- Dynamic Results are now available, enabling the Chatbot to instantly pull live results for multiple years from RunSignup’s database, allowing a runner to access their lifetime performance history with a race in seconds.
The RunSignup AI Chatbot will incorporate participant management and buy in chat options as it matures.
Operating from Moorestown, NJ, RunSignup, an employee-owned company, is an event solution provider for endurance events and non-profits, with more than 30,000 events using its platform to register over 11 million annual participants.
