AI As a Creative Collaborator

ID: WMA2026_631

Track:

Museums are being asked to do more with less resources while cultivating deeper engagement. This interactive session explores how AI can function as a creative collaborator in museum engagement work, including its ethical use. Through real-world examples, participants will learn how to use AI to deepen interpretation and support audience-centered experiences. Bring your own device to experiment with prompting and leave with practical tools that go beyond basic use and that you can apply immediately.

Session Information

Format: Regular session/panel (roundtable, single speaker, etc.)

Uniqueness: Moves beyond theory, and participants use AI in real time to address ethical and interpretive challenges in museum practice.

Objectives:

Learning Objectives

1. Provide a clear overview of artificial intelligence, including how generative AI fits within the broader AI landscape and its ethical considerations in museum practice
2. Explore how generative AI can function as a thought partner and creative collaborator in museum engagement and interpretation
3. Practice applying AI tools through hands-on exercises and discussion focused on real-world museum audience engagement scenarios Learning Outcomes By the end of this session, participants will:

• Understand the role of generative AI within the broader AI ecosystem and identify key ethical considerations relevant to museum work
• Use practical prompting strategies to engage AI as a creative collaborator for refining interpretive content and audience-facing materials
• Apply AI tools in real time to explore and develop audience-centered engagement ideas, with strategies they can immediately implement in their institutions

Engagement: We will project from our laptop, and we will also ask audiences to bring their own devices so they can actively practice what we are discussing. Engagement through questions, small group work.

Relationship to Theme:

Audience

Audiences: Curators/Scientists/Historians Other 

Professional Level: All levels 

Scalability: This can apply to any scale of museum. It particularly benefits small staff groups with smaller teams, but can also be applied to large museums.

Participants