Inês Fialho Brandão

Inês Fialho Brandão is Head of Cultural and Digital Mediation at the Calouste Gulbenkian Museum in Lisbon.

Her research focuses on the mediation of alterities in the museum space, focusing on difficult histories, forced migratory movements, and the restitution of cultural heritage.

She holds a PhD in history from Maynooth University, a Masters in Museum Studies and Middle Eastern Studies from New York University, and a first degree from the University of Edinburgh. She is a member of the Scientific Council of the Observatory for History Teaching in Europe (Council of Europe).

Inês Fialho Brandão will be speaking at the Museum AI Summit 2025 :

To Bot or not to Bot

We discuss lessons learned in two AI-powered projects undertaken in 2024 by the Gulbenkian Museum, Lisbon. The conceptual framework of MuseoBot, an installation exploring the interplay between museums and democratic societies was challenged by the implementation of an AI curatorial prompt. VenezIA, a generative-IA chatbot that provided customised mediation experiences to individual visitors, faced the hurdles of visitors’ own expectations and digital literacy.

Beyond registering the successful outcomes of these projects, we’ll highlight the importance of experimentation and the value of learning from limited results, invaluable insights into the potential and challenges of AI in the museum sector.