A First in Asia: OpenAI Partners with Ask Mona to Reinvent Museum Mediation

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At the 2025 ATxSummit in Singapore, the Peranakan Museum, OpenAI, and Ask Mona unveiled a new form of cultural mediation. This partnership marks a milestone: it is OpenAI’s first cultural collaboration in Asia, in partnership with a heritage institution and a European technology provider.

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A Challenge: Making Knowledge Accessible Without Imposing a Set Path

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The Peranakan Museum aimed to offer visitors simple, direct, and seamless access to content—without requiring an app or imposing a guided experience. The challenge was to allow each visitor to ask their own questions, in their own language, and receive accurate answers immediately.

In a place that celebrates the richness of Peranakan cultures—at the crossroads of Chinese, Malay, and European influences—the mediation needed to reflect this diversity while adapting to current digital practices.

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A Solution Designed for Fluidity

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Developed by Ask Mona, the system relies on a web interface accessible via a simple QR code placed next to selected objects. The experience unfolds in three steps:

1. The visitor scans the QR code with their smartphone.
2. They ask a question—written or spoken—in English or French.
3. The AI responds instantly, either in text or with voice synthesis.

All answers are based exclusively on content provided and validated by the museum’s team. The goal is not to generate new interpretations but to present existing knowledge in a conversational format.

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Three Key Features Activated for the Museum

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• Voice Interaction: Visitors can speak directly to the interface, making the experience more intuitive, fast, and natural.
• Real-Time Responses: The technical architecture ensures near-instant responses with no lag or interruptions.
• Multilingual Functionality: The interface works in both English and French, accommodating local and international visitors.

This configuration enables personalized, direct, and adaptive mediation.

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Tangible Benefits for the Peranakan Museum

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For the Peranakan Museum, this experiment has transformed how visitors interact with the collection. By allowing them to ask questions freely, the conversational interface has increased engagement with the artworks. Visitors no longer just read labels—they interact, follow up, and go deeper. This active stance encourages a more personal connection to the content.

The system also helps highlight lesser-known narratives often absent from traditional displays. Some objects, previously underexplored, are now sparking new interest thanks to the richness of AI-generated responses.

Finally, the solution offers the museum seamless, continuous mediation—available at any time of day, on any smartphone, with no need for additional staff. It complements existing tools while adapting to visitor flow and varied visitor profiles.

Beyond the in-gallery experience, the museum also gains access to valuable usage data: types of questions asked, languages used, most consulted objects, average interaction time, etc. These insights help better understand audience interests and enhance visit routes and mediation strategies.

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Technology Designed for Adaptability

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The system implemented at the Peranakan Museum can be quickly deployed in other institutions, with custom configurations:

• support for local languages;
• custom selection of objects or spaces to cover;
• autonomous management via a user-friendly dashboard.

This approach reflects a shared ambition: to put technology at the service of living heritage, not the other way around.