Dave Thomas

Dave Thomas is a fractional freelance Chief Information and Digital Transformation advisor working mostly within the Museums, Charity and Government (cultural heritage sector).

He has been advising London Transport Museum on Digital Transformation since early 2024 and setting new Innovation agenda, this includes Conversational Digital Posters. Previously Dave held Chief Information Officer roles in Axiell (Collections and Library Management to 13,000 worldwide customers), Natural History Museum (London) and UK Research Councils, and was originally in the private sector.

He has a long 20-year history with AI, Open Data and Data Science. For the last 7 years he has worked with many boards and teams on digital plans such as Comic Relief, Historic England, British Film Institute, Open Data Institute, Arts Council England, and various startups, private sector, government, charitable heritage organisations large and small.

He is a Trustee of the Greenham Common visitor centre and a mental health charity. He works internationally in Africa on conservation, and is a keen traveller, royal tennis and motorcyclist, with university age children.

Dave Thomas will be speaking at the Museum AI Summit 2026 :

The Talking AI Museum Guide of the Future

What if museum collections could come alive and converse with visitors? Discover how the London Transport Museum’s AI Digital Posters project uses a multi-lingual conversational AI character as a Digital Museum Guide to answer visitor questions about the museum’s Art Deco poster collection and related topics. This session presents a practical case study on how interactive AI tools can improve access to museum collections and create more dynamic and personalised visitor engagement. Attendees will also see a video demonstration of the AI Digital Museum Guide.