AI Assistant

MuseumStack includes an integrated AI Assistant that helps museum professionals work faster and more consistently. AI features are powered by credits — a simple pay-as-you-go system. Credits never expire and are purchased separately from your subscription.

Enabling AI Features

An Administrator must enable AI for your museum before the tools become available:

1. Navigate to Administration > AI Settings.
2. Toggle Enable AI Features on.
3. Configure a Monthly Credit Limit to cap spending automatically.
4. Choose whether AI suggestions require Manual Review before saving, or apply automatically.

Credit Packs

Credits are purchased in packs via Stripe:

Pack	Credits	Price (AUD)
Starter	200	$5.00
Standard	1,000	$20.00
Pro	5,000	$79.00

To purchase credits: Administration > AI Settings > Purchase Credits.

AI Tools

OCR — Extract Data from Documents

Upload an image or scanned document (a handwritten card, typed register, etc.) and the AI will extract structured fields (object name, description, date, accession number, etc.) ready to be reviewed and saved.

How to use:

1. When creating or editing an Item or Accession, click the AI Extract button.
2. Upload a photo or select an existing media file.
3. Review the extracted fields, correct any errors, and click Apply.

Credit cost: ~2 credits per extraction.

Describe Item — Generate a Description from a Photo

Take a photo of an object and the AI will draft a professional catalogue description and suggest materials.

How to use:

1. Open an Item record and navigate to the Media tab.
2. Click AI: Describe from Photo next to any image.
3. Review the generated description and click Apply to Record.

Credit cost: ~3 credits per description.

Suggest Cataloguing Improvements

For existing records with incomplete or sparse text, the AI can suggest improvements to the object name, description, and materials based on what’s already entered.

How to use:

1. Open an Item record in edit mode.
2. Click AI: Improve Cataloguing.
3. Review the suggested improvements and apply or dismiss each one.

Credit cost: ~1 credit per suggestion.

Condition Assessment from Photo

Upload a photo of an object and the AI will assess its visible condition and return a structured condition report.

How to use:

1. Open an Item record or Conservation record.
2. Click AI: Assess Condition.
3. Upload a photo or select an existing image.
4. Review the generated condition assessment and save.

Credit cost: ~3 credits per assessment.

Draft Research Reply

When managing a Research Request, the AI can draft a professional reply on your behalf.

How to use:

1. Open a Research Request record.
2. Click AI: Draft Reply.
3. Review and edit the draft before sending.

Credit cost: ~1 credit per draft.

Bulk Paper Import

The Bulk Paper Import tool lets you digitise large batches of handwritten or typed paper records at once.

How to use:

1. Navigate to Administration > AI Bulk Import.
2. Select the Record Type (Item or Accession).
3. Optionally select a Form Template to guide extraction for custom fields.
4. Upload one or more scanned images (JPGs, PNGs, PDFs).
5. Click Start Import. The system queues the files and processes them asynchronously.
6. When processing is complete, navigate to the Review Queue to inspect each extracted record.
7. For each record, you can:
   • Edit the extracted fields before saving.
   • Approve to create the entity in the catalogue.
   • Reject to discard the record (credits are refunded for rejections).

For items, the system attempts to link to an existing Accession by matching the extracted accession number. If no match is found, a stub Accession record is created automatically for you to complete later.

Credit cost: ~5 credits per image.

Usage & Monitoring

Track your AI credit consumption under Administration > AI Usage:

• Current credit balance.
• Credits used this month (vs. your monthly limit).
• Breakdown by feature.
• Recent action log.

Permissions Required

• Use AI Tools (items_update): Required to use OCR, describe, cataloguing, and condition features.
• Bulk Import (items_create): Required to run the paper batch import.
• Manage AI Settings (museum_settings_write): Required to enable AI, configure features, and purchase credits.
• View AI Usage (museum_settings_read): Required to view the credit balance and usage reports.