Smartify uses AI to generate a personalized audio tour for every museum visitor

AI gets plenty of use in museums, from cataloging collections and monitoring the condition of delicate artifacts to predicting visitor flows and uncovering patterns of bias. And, of course, improving the visitor experience. London-based museum tech platform Smartify is targeting the latter with its latest personalization tools.

The guiding principle is that every person wants something different from their museum visit. So before starting an audio tour, a user is asked what their preferred language is, which topics they're interested in, and if there are specific objects they'd like to see. Finally, it asks how much time they want to spend in the museum.

Using AI, Smartify's app takes seconds to create a tailormade audio tour specifically for that visitor. The Smithsonian American Art Museum is one of the first to trial Smartify's new personalization features, which it offers alongside traditional audio tours. According to reporting by MuseumNext, personalized tours have an unexpectedly high completion rate, indicating strong levels of visitor engagement. Smartify plans to add enhanced customization options in the coming months.