Image: Tate's Turbine Hall (CC-BY-SA The Wub)
Digital Venue explains how conversational AI can help cultural institutions share knowledge through personalised, multilingual experiences that connect museums, galleries and collections across cities.
The next great leap for museums, galleries, and cultural spaces won’t come from more screens or apps, but from something more human and familiar: conversation. We imagine a future where cultural knowledge isn’t locked away in wall texts, websites, or internal databases and collection management systems, but revealed -gently, helpfully, and on demand – through an AI-system that listens, learns, and responds to visitors’ needs. And the great news is: this future is here now!
Imagine this: a family arrives in London for a weekend away. Unsure what to do first, one parent asks their phone: “We’re at Tate Modern and the kids love science, but we only have a couple of hours! Where do we start?” A conversational assistant replies, not just with a map or opening hours, but with suggestions tailored to their interests, mood, and time. Perhaps it guides them through the Turbine Hall’s latest installation, highlighting its themes around science and technology, then suggests a hands-on exploration of the Tate Exchange workshops focused on art and innovation, or points them towards exhibits where materials science and artistic experimentation meet – a personalised journey of serendipitous discovery, connected by a narrative thread of curiosity and wonder.
We’re not talking about replacing human expertise. We’re here to help institutions surface and share what they already know, in ways that feel natural, personal, and relevant.
We’re not talking about replacing human expertise or dumbing things down. On the contrary, our platform helps cultural institutions amplify their existing knowledge – making it easier to surface, share, and adapt it across channels. It frees up staff to spend less time on repetitive tasks – like delivering essential visitor information or responding to common questions – and more time engaging with the work that brings collections to life: telling stories, making connections, and guiding deeper understanding. All in their visitors’ preferred language.
Built from the ground up around AI, our platform supports the entire visitor journey – from early awareness and planning, to onsite discovery, to post-visit reflection. Tools like multilingual conversational guides, audio tours, digital articles, and interactive games are not separate offerings, but part of a unified experience.
Grounded in the institution’s own content and expertise, content is presented to the visitor in ways that feel natural, personal, and relevant.
But our vision reaches further. We envision a cross-sector cultural assistant that works across cities, organisations, and collections. Visitors can ask one question – “What should I see next?” – and receive an answer drawn from a network of participating institutions. A sculpture at the V&A might lead to a science exhibit at the Wellcome Collection. A child’s question about space might connect the Science Museum to a planetarium on the other side of town.
This is possible because our system learns from the data that institutions choose to share, spotting patterns and links that might otherwise go unnoticed. Over time, we imagine a growing, personalised assistant that supports culture buffs across years and continents—whether they’re on a museum-binge holiday, getting a quick culture fix during their lunch break, or just playfully competing with their peers.
We see ourselves not as disruptors but as collaborators. We want to work with museums and cultural destinations to shape a future that’s both innovative and respectful – one that welcomes visitors with intelligence and warmth, and invites them to explore more deeply than ever before. A future where the knowledge you hold becomes a living, talking companion for every curious mind who walks through your doors – or connects from afar.
Our mission is to help organisations uncover and share what they already know, but may struggle to express. Decades of investment in research, stories, and deep curatorial context deserve more than a label or a leaflet. With the right tools, these can become rich, responsive experiences for visitors, wherever they are in their journey.
Any meaningful change must begin by listening: to institutions, to staff, to audiences. That’s the foundation we’re working from.
We know the future of cultural engagement won’t be built overnight, and it won’t be imposed from the outside. It will emerge from within the sector—shaped by those who understand its values, who carry its missions, and who face its daily challenges.
At Digital Venue, we recognise these realities not as barriers, but as impulses for purposeful innovation that is considered, transparent, and rooted in trust. To meet the ever-changing needs of their audiences, we call on cultural organisations to lean into AI, to experiment and learn first-hand what challenges and opportunities this paradigm shift holds.
This is why we’ve built an AI platform that supports these values, with a commitment to privacy, to accuracy, and accessibility – and that is ready to use, right now.
