What is a venue AI assistant?
A venue AI assistant is a question-and-answer service for one building or site: a shopping centre, an airport, a hospital, an exhibition, a campus, a town hall or a hotel. Visitors scan the QR code posted where they are standing, type or speak their question on their own phone and read the answer within seconds. The answers come only from the documents the venue uploads, such as the store list, floor plans, opening hours, service rules and the event programme, not from the open internet. Because each code belongs to a spot, directions start from where the visitor is, and the answer comes back in the language the question was asked in. Nothing is installed and nobody signs up. Questions the documents cannot answer are collected for the venue's team, so missing information becomes visible.
This page explains the category. The examples come from ToRun's venue AI assistant, and every statement about it describes what the product does today. Last reviewed: October 2026
How a venue AI assistant works
A code for each spot
The venue picks the spots where people stop to ask: entrances, lifts, car parks, halls, desks. Each spot gets its own QR code on a print-ready poster, so every question arrives with the place it was asked.
The question, on the visitor's own phone
The phone camera opens a web page with the venue's name and logo. The visitor types, or holds the microphone and speaks. There is no app to install, no account and no form.
An answer from the venue's documents
The assistant reads the documents the venue uploaded, Word, PDF, Excel or PowerPoint, at the moment the question is asked. When a document changes, the next answer follows it. When the documents hold no answer, it says so instead of guessing.
A record of what people looked for
Every question leaves a record without identity: what was asked, at which spot, when, in which language and whether an answer was found. The venue sees what its visitors need and where its own information falls short.
What a venue AI assistant is not
Not a kiosk
Nothing is installed in the building. The visitor's own phone is the screen, and the codes go on posters and existing signs.
Not a general chatbot
It answers about the venue from the venue's documents. It is not a window onto the whole internet, and no tenant or exhibitor can pay to be put first.
Not a live data feed
It is not connected to departure boards, queue systems or ticketing. Something that changes during the day reaches the answers when the document is updated.
Not a booking or payment channel
It tells people how and where to book or buy, from the venue's documents. The booking and the sale stay with the venue's own systems.
Not an emergency channel
Safety announcements and emergency guidance stay with the venue's own systems and staff.
Where it is used
It fits any place where many people ask the same questions about one site. What changes from venue to venue is the documents and the spots, not the software.
Store locations, campaigns, parking, events, the baby changing room. The leasing team sees measured demand for an empty unit in the asked-but-not-found list.
Exhibitions and congressesExhibitor list, halls and stands, the seminar programme, cloakroom, shuttles. When a stand moves at the last minute, the answer changes as soon as the list is updated.
Hotels and resortsRestaurant hours, the day's programme, the spa, the kids' club, transfers. Guests ask from the lobby, the room or the beach, and the report shows what they asked for that the hotel does not offer.
Airports and transport hubsTerminals, stations and ferry ports: baggage, transfers, tickets, service points. Travellers ask in their own language, and the report shows which languages and which hours the questions pile up in.
HospitalsOutpatient clinics, registration, the laboratory, visiting hours. The assistant does not diagnose: it gives the information about the building and the service, and points to a professional for personal decisions.
CampusesBuildings, lecture halls, the library, student affairs, the cafeteria, shuttle times. A code at every building entrance for the student who is here for the first time.
Municipal and public buildingsProcedures, queues, required documents, where each office is and when it is open. The head office writes it once, and every service building answers with the same information at its own spots.
Museums and attractionsOpening hours, tickets, the next show or guided tour, the café, the way out. A code at each hall or attraction answers from the spot where the visitor is standing.
Branch networksHead office uploads a document once, and every branch answers from it with its own codes. A branch manager sees only their own branch's reports.
The answers are for your visitors. The record is for you.
Demand report
What was asked, at which spot, at what time of day and in which language, with a list of the most-asked questions. Input for campaigns, leasing, layout and staffing.
Asked but not found
Every question your documents have no answer for is collected in its own list, for example: “340 people asked for a pharmacy this month, and there isn't one in the building.” Measured demand while you look for a tenant. The list downloads as Excel or CSV.
Instant fault reports
A visitor writes “the toilet upstairs is closed”. The report reaches the manager's panel straight away, stamped with the spot and the time, and is sent by e-mail too. If nobody picks it up within the set time, it moves up to the next person in charge.
We collect questions, not people
Visitors are never asked for an account, a name, a phone number or an ID number, and the page asks for neither location nor camera permission. Question records contain no identity, IP address or device information, and a spoken question is turned into text without keeping the recording. Hosting is in the European Union (Germany).
How it differs from a kiosk, an app or a desk
An information desk is one spot, one language and office hours. Printed signs cannot answer a question nobody foresaw. A kiosk needs hardware and stands in one place, and a venue app has to be installed first. A QR-code assistant works on the phone every visitor already carries, at every spot with a code.
Frequently asked
How is it different from asking ChatGPT or another general assistant?
A general assistant knows the internet, not the inside of your building. A venue AI assistant answers from the documents the venue uploads, starts directions from the spot where the code hangs, and tells the venue what was asked and what could not be answered.
Which venues is it for?
Places where many people ask the same questions about one site: shopping centres, exhibitions and congresses, hotels and resorts, airports and transport hubs, hospitals, university campuses, municipal and public buildings, museums and attractions, and branch networks.
We already have an app.
The same page can be opened from your app. The QR code is the route for the visitor who won't install anything; the two work together.
Does it need internet?
Yes: the visitor's mobile connection or the venue's Wi-Fi is enough. The page is light and opens quickly on a weak connection.
Do we need to translate our documents?
No. You upload your documents in the language you work in; someone who asks in another language gets the answer in theirs.
What happens when the answer is not in our documents?
The assistant says it does not have that information instead of guessing, and the question goes to the asked-but-not-found list in your panel. That list shows which information is missing, and it downloads as Excel or CSV.
Can visitors speak instead of typing?
Yes. They hold the microphone button and speak, up to 30 seconds per press. The spoken question is turned into text, the recording is not kept, and the answer arrives in writing.
What is recorded about visitors?
The question, not the person: what was asked, at which spot, when, in which language and whether an answer was found. Visitors are never asked for an account, a name or a phone number, and question records contain no identity, IP address or device information.
What does a venue need to provide to start?
Mostly documents you already have: store, unit or exhibitor lists, floor details, opening hours, services and rules, as Word, PDF, Excel or PowerPoint. You pick the spots, and a print-ready poster with its own QR code comes out of the system for each one.
Is the AI trained on our data?
No. The AI is not trained on your data; the documents are read at the moment a question is asked. That is why an update to a document shows up in the answers.
We're looking for the first venue to set it up with
The software is ready and live. We start with a short setup on a limited number of spots: we handle the setup and configuration, the venue provides the documents, and at the end we read the report of what visitors were looking for together. Scope, duration and terms are agreed in a meeting.
Before we meet: we can build a trial page from the public store or exhibitor list on your website, so you can try the assistant on your own phone with your own venue's information.