What Visitors Think of the AI Museum Guide — Research at Highlight Delft
Building a guide is one thing. Knowing how visitors actually experience it is another. So during the Highlight Delft Festival (February 2026) we tested the AI Museum Guide with real visitors for the first time — and asked them right afterward what they thought.
We interviewed seven visitors aged 22 to 78, Dutch and international, just after they'd used the guide on their own phone at the artworks. The result: a pleasant, low-threshold experience — especially for younger visitors.
Watch the aftermovie here:
What visitors appreciate
A lower threshold, more active looking. Visitors often skip traditional museum texts or find them too complicated. The guide adapts the text to their level and gets them thinking through questions.
"I don't really like reading those little signs, so I just skipped that. And then I went straight to answering the questions." — Visitor
Depth at their own pace. The guide goes beyond what fits on a label. Visitors choose for themselves where to dig deeper.
"There was one artifact that drew my attention. I could stand there for 30 minutes talking to AI about that one artifact." — Visitor
Discovering together, in any language. Visitors often used the guide together and started talking to each other. And because it works in multiple languages, the museum becomes more accessible to international visitors.
Motivation to keep looking. The playful, quiz-like setup encourages visitors to explore more works.
What could be better
No research is complete without criticism, and we took it seriously. Some visitors don't always want to get their information through the quiz questions — questions often arise spontaneously. And the knowledge level, which visitors now choose only at the start, is something they'd like to adjust along the way too.
"Maybe an option to skip the questions and ask your own questions right away." — Visitor
What this teaches us
Visitors aren't uninterested — they're often held back by texts that don't connect. The AI Museum Guide offers information in a low-threshold, interactive way and challenges visitors to look more actively and draw their own connections. That makes the guide more than an information source: a new form of public mediation that strengthens accessibility, engagement, and meaning.
This research is based on the version we tested at Highlight Delft in February 2026. Since 11 June we've also been live at Rijksmuseum Boerhaave, where we're doing additional research. We'll share those results as soon as they're available.
