How a Museum Marketing Team Used AI to Bring People Closer to Art

Podcast: Cold Call · HBR Presents / Brian Kenny

Opublikowano: 2026-07-21

In 2025, Harvard Art Museums considered using generative artificial intelligence in a marketing campaign to increase visitor engagement and membership. Looking to boost attendance and appeal to a younger audience base, and facing intensified competition for leisure time, the Museums’ marketing team explored animating a canonical artwork using AI-generated avatars as part of a digital campaign. While the approach promised novelty and attention, it raised internal concerns about brand authenticity, interpretive authority, donor relations, and reputational risk—particularly given broader cultural anxieties surrounding AI and the museums’ association with the Harvard brand. Harvard Business School Associate Professor Julian De Fre...