Alistair Hardaker | Image: The AI avatar at Leeds Castle (Leeds Castle)
Leeds Castle opens Eleanor of Castile exhibition featuring environment-aware AI avatar that responds to visitor questions in real-time conversations.
Leeds Castle has opened an exhibition featuring an interactive historical AI avatar that is aware of and responsive to its environment.
The ‘Pilgrimage of Love: Eleanor of Castile’ exhibition culminates with a digital display, featuring an avatar of Eleanor of Castile.
The display, ‘An Audience with a Queen’, recognises when a visitor approaches and simulates a response from the queen including visitor questions.
The technology powering the avatar was developed by SKC Studios, creators of the AI platform 1956 Individuals.
The exhibition explores the life and legacy of Eleanor of Castile, the first female owner of Leeds Castle, who lived from 1241 to 1290. It explores her marriage to King Edward I, travels on crusade and role as a landowner and businesswoman.
Leeds Castle Foundation, which maintains Leeds Castle, said Eleanor of Castile transformed the castle into a royal symbol of refinement, and introduced cosmopolitan European culture to the royal English court, including tapestries, carpets and tableware.
Dr Dominique Bouchard FRHistS FSA, heritage and engagement director at Leeds Castle said the new avatar “gives visitors a unique chance to meet Eleanor of Castile as a person with depth and personality.
“ It allows us to share a meticulously researched story in a format that feels immediate and personal, inviting visitors to explore Eleanor’s world with curiosity and confidence. That sense of connection has always been at the heart of heritage interpretation, and this exhibition opens up a new way of creating it.”
Babita Devi, co-founder and chief commercial officer at SKC Studios added: “This marks a step change for the cultural sector. It demonstrates what forward-thinking cultural stewardship truly means: safeguarding the integrity of heritage while using pioneering technology to unlock deeper, more dynamic access to knowledge for a new generation.”
The exhibition opened on 9 March 2026.
