The Audiences Agency has made a number of recommendations on how cultural organisations use AI, in a report published this week.
The report, Let’s Get Real: AI, is the result of collaborative action research and learning project that took place from April to December 2025.
This saw a group of 32 leaders and practitioners from 16 UK cultural organisations came together to experiment, learn and strategise around the use of artificial intelligence in their work.
The report’s five key recommendations are:
- Ensure processes are people-centred, not led by AI
- Create clear guardrails that can flex and evolve as AI tools and context change
- Nurture small-scale, low-stakes experimental approaches
- Strengthen your data before scaling your use of AI
- Learn with peers and share knowledge
“The cultural sector is not alone in wanting to ensure our adoption of AI is responsible, ethical and ultimately purposeful,” the report says.
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“In many ways, issues around AI such as the domination of big tech, the need for ongoing skills-building, the financial pressures, and so on, are not new, and not different from the wider digital transformation challenges.
“In terms of speed, scale and potential impact though, AI is different. The environmental cost, the damage being wrought by baked-in bias within large language models, and the risks to the creative arts posed by generative AI are just three hugely significant challenges not yet fully understood and addressed.
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“This scale of change and widespread integration of AI into the tools and platforms we use every day, mean AI cannot be ignored. The cultural sector needs to urgently find its collective voice and be part of the conversation.”
Museums involved in the cohort include Bradford District Museums & Galleries; Bristol Museum; London Museum; The Box, Plymouth; and the National Gallery, London.
The 2025 Let’s Get Real AI cohort was supported and sponsored by Arts Marketing Association and Bloomberg Connects. It was delivered in partnership with AI expert Jocelyn Burnham and run in partnership with ther Institute for Digital Culture at University of Leicester and its director, Ross Parry.
Insights from the report have informed the choice of theme for the next Let’s Get Real Programme, which will start in May. This will focus on AI and social impact.