Case Study

How Visit Raleigh and the Carolina Hurricanes used connected AI agents to guide 300,000+ fans through the Stanley Cup Final 2026.

Summary

The Carolina Hurricanes' Stanley Cup Final run brought international attention and a major economic boost to Raleigh, with three sold-out home games, watch parties, and a championship parade drawing fans from all 50 states and two countries, and generating $13.4 million in total economic impact for Wake County. For both the team and the destination, a championship-level event meant a flood of new questions, and a stream of new information that changed almost daily.

Both organizations leaned on their Satisfi Labs AI agents to meet the moment: answering a surge of fan questions around the clock, keeping information current as fast as it changed, and freeing staff to focus on the work only people could do. And because their two agents were connected through the chat-in-chat feature, fans could move seamlessly between team and destination information inside a single conversation.

Challenge

Championship events move fast, and the details fans needed most - parade routes, road closures, parking, watch party locations, merchandise - could only be confirmed as the playoffs progressed, often just days before each event.

That created two pressures at once. Visitor questions spiked well beyond normal volume, and the answers to those questions kept changing. Both teams needed to keep fans informed in real time, around the clock, without adding staff or extending hours, all while juggling everything else a championship run demands.

Solution

Both organizations run Satisfi Labs AI agents that pull directly from their own websites and other owned sources, so every response reflected the latest information the moment it went live. As new details were posted, from parade routes and parking to hotels, restaurants, tickets, and series news, the agents immediately reflected those updates. No one had to manually change chat responses on the fly.

The two agents were also connected through chat-in-chat, so a fan on the Hurricanes site could tap into Raleigh travel information, and a fan on visitRaleigh.com could reach team resources like buying tickets or parking, all continued from the same conversation. That meant fans never had to search a second website or contact staff when a question strayed beyond one organization's information.

For fans, the agent became a concierge that helped them sift through a daily stream of new information and find exactly what they were looking for. For staff, it quietly handled the routine and repetitive questions, so both teams could keep moving to the next task as the series progressed.

“Connecting the Visit Raleigh and Hurricanes agents created a more seamless experience for visitors throughout the championship run. Visitors could get both destination and team information in one conversation, while the agents helped us manage the increase in questions without adding staff or extending our hours. It allowed our team to stay focused on supporting visitors and partners as information continued to change throughout the series.”

‍Vimal Vyas

CDME, Vice President of Data, Security and AI Innovation, Visit Raleigh

Results

The agents proved their value at exactly the moment it mattered most. Across the Stanley Cup Final and the weeks around it, the two agents handled nearly 4,000 conversations, saving an estimated 195 staff hours, the equivalent of roughly five full work weeks that neither organization had to staff for. Nearly half of those conversations happened after hours, when offices and the Visitor Information Center were closed, but fans still needed answers about parking, watch parties, and where to celebrate. For both teams, the payoff was capacity: the routine questions were handled automatically, freeing staff to update information, support partners, and focus on the moments only people could deliver.

38%

of the Hurricanes’ entire year-to-date message volume in just two weeks

195

staff hours saved for both teams in two weeks

43.5%

of all conversations came after hours

“With Satisfi Labs’ intelligent content management capabilities, our chat responses stayed current automatically, eliminating the need for our staff to constantly update content and allowing us to focus on the next task as the series progressed. In particular, the agent helped direct fans to watch party information, which became our highest-viewed page of the entire season."

Matt Sutor

Chief Marketing Officer, Carolina Hurricanes

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