Faro
FARO (Vlaams steunpunt voor cultureel erfgoed) is the Flemish government's cultural heritage organization. For over a decade, it has worked to make heritage collections and historic locations more accessible to the public. Its flagship mobile platform, the ErfgoedApp, launched in 2015, delivers “information and stories on location” for museums, monuments, and heritage sites across Flanders and Brussels. Using augmented reality, IoT devices, beacons, and now AI, the app transforms a visitor’s phone into a smart companion for heritage discovery.
In 2025, to celebrate the app’s 10th anniversary and meet the growing demand for interactive guidance, FARO partnered with ChatBotKit to embed advanced AI chatbots directly into the ErfgoedApp and museum experiences. These conversational tools offer multi-lingual, location-aware guidance to visitors on-site — whether they’re exploring a museum, walking through a historical town square, or visiting a protected landmark.
Challenges in Heritage Interpretation
- Static Interpretation: Many museum labels and plaques can only tell part of the story. Visitors often want deeper context, comparisons, or anecdotes not found on the wall.
- Staffing Limitations: Museum guides and heritage interpreters cannot be everywhere at once, especially during peak visitor hours or when multiple rooms and sites are open.
- Accessibility: Visitors include speakers of many languages, as well as people who benefit from audio guides, sign language, or easy-to-read explanations. Ensuring everyone can access the stories behind artifacts and heritage locations is an ongoing challenge.
Solution: Conversational Heritage Guides with the Ask Principle
With ChatBotKit’s technology, FARO has transformed the ErfgoedApp into an on-demand heritage guide where visitors can simply ask their questions at any time, from anywhere in the museum or heritage location.
- AI Q&A for Museums and Heritage Sites ("Oehoe") – The built-in chatbot, Oehoe, answers questions about artworks, historic buildings, and local landmarks. Visitors don’t have to follow a fixed route or wait for a specific moment in a tour — they can ask, “Who painted this?”, “When was this building constructed?”, or “What happened here during the war?” whenever curiosity strikes.
- Multi-Lingual Support for International Audiences – The AI can switch seamlessly between Dutch, French, English, and other languages, allowing museums and heritage locations to serve international tourists without separate guide materials.
- Embedded in Museum Apps – The chatbot widget is integrated into the ErfgoedApp’s tour screens, ensuring visitors always have a direct “Ask” button at hand.
- Location-Aware Storytelling – Using geofencing, the app can trigger Oehoe to offer relevant stories when a visitor approaches a specific room, object, or building. Combined with the Ask principle, this means the AI can proactively offer insights and respond to spontaneous visitor questions.
- Available on erfgoed.app Website – Oehoe is not limited to the mobile app. On the erfgoed.app website, visitors can also chat with the AI to discover and explore the roughly 800 tours available across Flanders and Brussels, helping them plan their next museum visit or heritage walk.
Looking Ahead
FARO aims to roll out the Ask principle to more museum collections, heritage trails, and open-air sites, making heritage discovery even more intuitive.
Whether in a quiet museum room, a restored industrial site, or a centuries-old city square, ChatBotKit’s conversational AI turns every heritage visit into a personalised, multilingual dialogue — available everywhere, at any moment.