Hyper-personalised culture podcasts with AI
Challenge
Cultural experiences like concerts and theater performances can be deeply moving and inspiring. Yet for those attending such an event for the first time, the threshold can be high. After all, what should you expect? Even when trailers, introductions, or podcasts are available, they often assume some prior knowledge or they remain too general to truly connect with each individual’s experience. This “preparation gap” prevents many (new) audience members from fully engaging with a live performance. At the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra, for instance, only 8.5% of first-time visitors return, even though 47% of their audience are first-timers – a common challenge in the performing arts. A key part of their retention strategy, therefore, is to ensure that newcomers feel more gently welcomed into the concert hall.
Result
The more you know, the more fun and richer your cultural experience becomes. That’s why we developed Wondercast: an AI-powered tool that creates a personalized podcast for every cultural visitor. This helps people prepare for what they’re about to see, hear, and feel AI design sprint, Customer journeys, Visual design, Prototyping, AI development, Fundraisingso they can get the most out of the experience. In doing so, new audiences are offered a more meaningful introduction to the arts, increasing the likelihood they’ll come back.
What we did
AI design sprint, Customer journeys, Visual design, Prototyping, AI development, Fundraising
Impact
Awards
- Webby People's Voice Winner 2025: AI, Immersive & Games - Arts, Culture & Events
Understand
Wondercast first learns about your cultural background and what you’d like to learn. This helps us create content that’s perfectly matched to your level – whether you’re new to classical music or already familiar with it.
Discover
Further, we explore what interests you most about the upcoming performance – from the emotional power of certain pieces to stories about the composers and musicians. As you share more, the system continuously refines its understanding of what would make the experience meaningful for you.
Personal preferences
You’re in control of how you want to learn. Choose how long you want your podcast to be, how many musical examples you’d like to hear, and what kind of tips would be most helpful. It’s like having a personal guide who adapts to your schedule and preferences.
Creating the podcast
This is where the magic happens: our AI technology transforms all your input into a natural, engaging conversation between hosts. They weave in carefully selected musical fragments and insights, creating a listening experience that feels both informative and entertaining – as if it was crafted just for you.
Opening new doors
After listening to your personalized podcast, Wondercast helps you dig deeper by providing easy access to additional resources mentioned in your episode and suggests other performances you might enjoy, based on your interests.
Wondercast offers our visitors a softer landing and a deeper cultural experience. We expect this to give a significant boost to repeat visits, and the first tests with the prototype are very promising!
AI breakthrough
Wondercast represents a breakthrough in personalized content generation by combining multiple AI technologies. It’s built on dynamically instructed language models optimized with cultural contexts, which generate conversational interview scripts through agentic content selection and real-time adaptation. For audio, we use voice synthesis from ElevenLabs, bringing the scripts to life with natural and engaging speech. This layered approach ensures a seamless and personalized listening experience.
From prototype to pilot
Wondercast began as an experimental prototype for the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra, demonstrating the potential of AI to transform cultural engagement. The successful initial testing phase included 10 test users, revealing positive feedback from first-time concert visitors about feeling better prepared, alongside enthusiasm from cultural institutions about the potential to better serve diverse audiences. This early success has led to partnerships with two Dutch theaters interested in expanding beyond classical music, secured funding of € 75,000 for full-scale pilot development, and plans for implementation with the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra in May.
Ready to change things?
