Just a year ago, we launched our wonderful audio guide at its first exhibition. Pragovka Gallery trusted us before we ourselves knew whether the whole thing would work. We nervously watched as the first visitors pulled out their phones, scanned QR codes, listened to the generated audio, and began asking the AI chatbot about the exhibits around them. And it worked.

Today, a year later, Cabinet of Wonders guides visitors in 17 museums and galleries. And more are coming soon.

It seems like the right moment to pause and look back.

What drives us

I believe that meaningful use of artificial intelligence helps museums remove barriers and be more inspiring for their visitors. I know that:

  • Spoken word is more accessible than written text. It extends attention span and enables a simultaneous experience — listening to a narrative while observing an exhibit. That's why Cabinet of Wonders uses text-to-speech models to help museums create audio content. We've built an interface where curatorial text can be turned into spoken narration with a single click.
  • Even if you speak foreign languages, listening to narration in your mother tongue is more enjoyable. That's why we automatically translate narrations into dozens of languages. Everything can be heard not only in Czech or English, but also in German, French, Italian, Polish... or Ukrainian.
  • Museums need flexibility. Waiting for a freelancer who will do things in two months and only half as imagined is maddening. That's why we created Cabinet Studio, an intuitive web interface where museums can manage their entire guide themselves. You add an exhibit, click, and within moments you have a new stop in the mobile app — complete with translations and audio. Practically zero costs and no waiting.
  • All kinds of people visit museums. Children, students, travellers, or experts — everyone is looking for something different. Offering a great experience to each of them has been impossible until now. Just like writing a book that speaks to all readers, or making a film the entire audience loves. We want to change that. We're working to make Cabinet of Wonders able to tell each visitor a story made just for them — with the right level of detail, in their language, at their pace, and in their style.

Cabinet of Wonders founder Lukáš Pilka cuts the birthday cake.

What we achieved in a year

We launched Cabinet of Wonders at Kunsthalle Praha, the City Gallery Prague, the Museum of the City of Brno and the Museum of Art Olomouc. We guided thousands of visitors at Signal festival. We collaborated with the Museum of Czech Literature and the Lidice Memorial on making content of deep historical significance accessible... And every museum taught us something.

Over the year we co-organised 10 Museum Update workshops across 10 regions of the Czech Republic. Together with regional institutions, we provided museum professionals with a space to meet and share experiences around artificial intelligence and the visitor experience. We co-organised the international seminar Museums and Artificial Intelligence with the National Gallery Prague and the Association of Museums and Galleries. And we published a comprehensive survey Joys and frustrations in Czech museums and galleries. This is the direction we intend to lead Cabinet of Wonders. We don't want to be merely a technology vendor, but someone who understands the museum world and wants to push it forward.

Throughout the year we also intensively improved the AI guide itself. We released 6 major updates to the mobile app and 12 updates to Cabinet Studio. We continuously improved the quality of generated audio and AI assistants, and worked on a better user experience — both for visitors and museum professionals. While it may not be obvious at first glance, today's Cabinet of Wonders is a completely different service — technically and in terms of user experience — from the one that was born a year ago.

What lies ahead

Above all, we will focus on further improving the AI guide. We want it to offer:

  • Personalised audio narration. As I mentioned, every visitor is different and deserves a different story. We're working to enable the guide to tailor its narration to whoever is standing in front of the exhibit.
  • More languages. We know there is demand for Chinese, Korean, Japanese, and Hebrew. We plan to expand language support so that museums can reach visitors whose mother tongue the guide has not yet spoken.
  • Richer audio experience. The current form of generated narration is just the beginning. We're working on better voices, sound effects, background music, and dialogues between characters. We want the audio guide to be not just a plain commentary, but an experience like a good audiobook.
  • Visitor data. What languages do our visitors speak? Which exhibits interest them most? Which do they skip? What do they ask the AI guide? We're preparing tools that will give museums concrete answers and data to improve their services.

Alongside development, other important tasks await us. We will soon be launching our first museums outside the Czech Republic. We are expanding the team so that Cabinet of Wonders can grow sustainably and museums always receive quality support. And we want to keep bringing new know-how and practical inspiration for improving the visitor experience.

Thank you to Pragovka Gallery for being with us from the very beginning, and thank you to all the institutions we work with. Thank you to the wonderful people from museums and galleries who trust us and support us. There are many of them. Thank you to everyone who is or has been part of our team.

Thank you for the first year. I look forward to the second.

Lukáš Pilka
Founder, Cabinet of Wonders