Last August, through our pages, we presented a survey, still active, on how an intelligent museum can be understood, beyond the mantra of recent years regarding the applications of artificial intelligence. This topic has become the official theme of Network Museum for the entire year of 2025, as anticipated by various of our interventions during the last months of the past year.

It is about understanding what a museum thinks of itself and its “publics” and how it does so. It is about understanding how museum institutions use this introspective aspect, if it is active, which would lead them to acquire greater awareness of their role towards the community, the topics addressed, and the museum operators themselves, regardless of their category.

To concretize this commitment, we are continuing with the initiatives promoted since last August, such as the development of a series of surveys for the “Numbers and Trends” section. Additionally, always from a demoscopic activity perspective, we will ask individual museums to respond to some questionnaires on this new theme, specifically designed for professionals, divided by categories and characterized by the rigorous traceability of the entity.

In collaboration with the editorial staff of Network Museum People, on the research front dedicated to the users of museum expressions, we will conduct the same operation to consider the point of view on the topic from the perspective of the public and the publics. In this case too, in addition to the survey activity proposed through the website www.networkmuseumpeople.com, activities will be promoted to stimulate, always on the theme, opinions and reasoning from visitors and museum-goers, to be studied and published on the aforementioned site.

Regarding the application of artificial intelligence, we are conducting a series of survey activities, through which we will formulate the following questions to museum institutions:
– how did they become aware of the technologies derived from artificial intelligence applications?
– In which areas and with what functions have these technologies been applied?
– What results have been recorded?

– How have these technologies influenced the identity and raison d’être of the museums themselves
– How has artificial intelligence influenced the operations within the museum and the individual tasks and functions?

Also, on the front of studying the impact of artificial intelligence at Infogestione Network Museum Lab, an informal network will be implemented, composed of research entities, companies in the IT and educational sector, museums, and national and international university institutions, to stimulate experimentation, among the members of this informal technological consortium, of projects regarding the application of artificial intelligence in various areas of museum activities.