Heritage Innovation Diary: co-creating the future of AI and peer-powered marketing support 

When you're the only marketing person at a heritage site, who do you turn to when you need to brainstorm a visitor campaign or troubleshoot a social media crisis? For many small heritage organisations—which don't have specialist marketing staff, that can't afford to bring in consultants or freelancers, and often operate with a team of one doing everything including marketing—the answer is often "no one". 

This doesn’t just impact small organisations. The benefits of being able to access 24/7, free advice can be a game-changer especially when that support is relevant to your heritage type and draws on trusted sources and the experience of your peers. This became starkly apparent when the Head of Fundraising at a Cathedral in the north of England tested an early prototype of Goose. They were already working on her first draft of a campaign plan, but after just one conversation, they told colleagues: "This has already given me a couple of ideas that aren't in the first draft." 

It's exactly the kind of breakthrough moment we hoped for when we started developing a platform that combined specialist knowledge, collective experience, trusted resources and frontier AI capabilities.   

Building From the Ground Up

We've built Goose with extensive collaboration from heritage professionals across the UK. Over 50 organisations have participated in our co-design process through in-person workshops in London and Manchester, ten online sessions, and detailed one-to-one interviews. We're keen that Goose doesn't impose technology on the sector, it's the sector actively shaping how AI can best serve their needs. 

Our co-design process revealed critical insights that generic AI tools simply can't address. Heritage professionals face unique constraints: limited budgets, volunteer-dependent operations, complex funding landscapes, and the challenge of making centuries-old stories relevant to modern audiences.

As one Alpha (phase one) tester from a Wildlife Trust in Wales put it: "Goose is built specifically for the heritage sector. Knowing the constraints and the trends and the opportunities... you're already moving past the point of ChatGPT being cold and distant." 

This sector-specific understanding extends beyond just knowing heritage terminology. Goose understands that a cathedral's fundraising strategy differs fundamentally from a tech startup's approach, that conservation organisations face different digital challenges than commercial businesses, and that volunteer-run heritage sites need different support than large national institutions. 

How Goose Supports Heritage Professionals

The platform's functionality has been shaped by real-world testing with Alpha users, resulting in several confirmed features that address genuine sector needs. At its core, Goose functions as an AI-powered "thinking partner" guided by trusted resources and users sharing their own insights. Goose will understand heritage contexts and will be able to tackle everything from developing social media strategies for reaching new audiences to creating accessibility action plans. 

Users will be able to access specialist expertise through AI personas called ‘Thinking Partners’ that tap into role-specific knowledge of AI personas from events professionals and community engagement specialists, to accessibility experts and fundraisers. 

Beta testing confirmed that the 'Thinking Partners' are Goose's standout feature, with projects using thinking partners generating 61% more engagement (averaging 10.65 messages versus 6.61 without). The Digital Marketing Manager persona led usage with 49 uses, followed by Content Manager and Social Media Manager - revealing the sector's pressing need for digital expertise.

As one Beta tester noted: "Having these clear thinking partners bringing different ideas acted as a great sounding board. This was my favourite feature."

The Beta testing phase also validated the design concept with demonstrations of real-world usage. With 40 users creating 149 projects and generating over 830 messages, early data reveals strong practical application. Particularly encouraging is that 55% of survey respondents have already implemented or adapted Goose's suggestions in their actual work, with another 22% planning to use them - demonstrating immediate real-world impact.

Transforming Heritage Marketing 

The implications for arts and heritage marketing extend beyond individual organisations. Goose represents a fundamental shift toward democratising marketing expertise across the sector. 

For small heritage organisations, the platform levels the playing field.

As one heritage centre manager explained: "It's like a game changer for smaller organisations... people who don't have access to these wide sort of fonts of knowledge. It's like a virtual marketing team."

Beta testing confirms this democratisation effect, with two "power users" emerging who used Goose on a daily basis, while 89% of survey respondents became regular users (3+ sessions). One power user has already applied Goose to CRM activities, demonstrating how the platform integrates into daily workflows. Another  used Goose to create an interactive quiz about a part of their collection.

Volunteer-run sites can now access the same calibre of marketing support traditionally available only to larger institutions. 

For solo marketing officers, Goose provides the collaborative sounding board they often lack.

"Because I work as a solo marketing officer... there's a lot of challenges you know I get given tasks and there's not always anyone I can bounce those ideas off," shared one co-designer.

The platform offers that missing thinking partner, available 24/7 for idea sharing and strategy development. 

The broader sector benefits through shared learning. As more heritage professionals use Goose and contribute their experiences, the platform's knowledge base grows stronger. Successful strategies from one organisation can inform approaches elsewhere, creating a dynamic ecosystem of sector expertise that improves continuously. 

This represents more than efficiency gains. It's about building sector resilience and supporting digital transformation. It ensuring heritage organisations can harness these powerful tools rather than being left behind. 

The Beta phase has also revealed important insights about user expectations. Heritage professionals familiar with ChatGPT and Claude are looking for advanced features like web page analysis and deeper customisation options. While 52% of Beta projects involved brief exploratory sessions, 30% dove deeper into Goose's specialist tools - suggesting users need support understanding the platform's full capabilities. Notably, peer knowledge sharing features remain underutilised, indicating it's time to look at this collaborative aspect in more depth.

The full release of Goose is planned for January 2026 alongside a free online training programme for anyone working in the heritage sector. The co-design process continues, ensuring the platform evolves with the sector's needs. As our testing has shown, when AI is built by heritage professionals for heritage professionals, the results speak for themselves: "next time I have a question I'll go to Goose." 

Carol Jones, Editor, AMA’s knowledge exchange hub, CultureHive and Grow Innovation Lead 

Heritage organisations interested in joining our testing programme can express their interest by emailing carol@a-m-a.co.uk. We're particularly keen to hear from organisations of all sizes who want to share their knowledge and also shape how AI can best serve the heritage sector's unique needs. 

Goose is being developed by Arts Marketing Association (AMA) through funding from The National Lottery Heritage Fund and co-created with the heritage sector. AMA is working with digital development agency Make Sense of It and AI partner Jo Burnham, AI for Culture.