Guide AI

What Guide AI does

Guide.AI Ltd is a Bristol, UK-based private limited company (registered in England & Wales, company number 13587748, founded 2021) that operates a do-it-yourself platform for creating, publishing, and selling AI-generated audio guides for cultural, historical, and tourist destinations. The platform lets authors produce smartphone-based guides using only pictures and scripts; AI text-to-speech converts the scripts into audio and machine translation renders them into 13 languages (English, Spanish, Polish, Mandarin, Hindi, French, Danish, Italian, Dutch, Portuguese, German, Japanese, and Welsh), without requiring recording equipment or production teams.

The product surface consists of the Guide.AI App (iOS, Android, and web) for consumers to discover and experience guides via proximity-based search, the Author Portal web app for creating and publishing guides, and three guide formats covering outdoor GPS-mapped destinations, indoor floor-plan venues, and locations requiring physical signage. A Guide Analytics dashboard gives authors visibility into downloads and revenue, and a no-cost accessibility feature supports partially sighted visitors. The firm is small (1–10 employees), founder-led, and operates with no disclosed institutional funding.

Guide.AI monetizes through a multi-tier model: a free Revenue Share tier in which authors keep 40% of sale prices set between £1.99 and £14.99 (Guide.AI retains 60%), a £120/month subscription with an additional £10 per extra language in which authors keep 55%, bespoke/custom arrangements negotiated directly with Guide.AI, and a £150 concierge Guide Creation Service where Guide.AI builds the guide from client content. Stripe handles all payment processing. Target customer segments are museums, aquariums, festivals, history societies, guide book authors, and individual creators, with named reference customers including Bristol Light Festival, Canterbury Roman Museum, Bristol Aquarium, Friends of York Walls, Cheltenham Paint Festival, and Stinchcombe History Society.

Name

Guide AI

Legal name

Guide.AI Ltd

Website

https://guide-ai.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

2021

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

Guide.AI is a Bristol-based DIY platform that lets anyone create, publish, and sell AI-generated smartphone audio guides for cultural and historical destinations in 13 languages, serving museums, festivals, history societies, and independent authors.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Audio Guide Platform

NAICS

Software Publishers (5132)

SIC

Services-Prepackaged Software (7372)

akta.pro primary industry

AI Music Creation & Assistive Tools (Generation, Separation, Mastering) (MPAIAIAG)

akta.pro secondary industry

AI Tutoring Systems (Conversational Tutors, Homework Helpers) (EDAFAFAC)

Keywords

• AI audio guides
• Audio guide platform
• AI text-to-speech
• Multilingual tour guides
• Cultural heritage content

Headquarters

HQ city

Bristol

HQ country

United Kingdom

HQ region

Europe

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Software

Cost components

Technology or R&D, Personnel, Infrastructure, Marketing or Sales, Operations

Revenue model

1. Revenue Share Model: Authors develop and publish audio guides at no cost. When guides are sold, Guide.AI retains 60% and authors receive 40% of the sale price. Authors set their own sale price between £1.99 and £14.99.
2. Subscription Model: Authors pay £120 per month plus £10 per additional language beyond English. Authors earn 55% of guide sales. Includes Official Guide Status. Free guide downloads are permitted.
3. Bespoke/Custom Model: Custom audio guide offerings designed to meet specific organizational needs. Financial arrangements negotiated directly with Guide.AI before publication.
4. Guide Creation Service: Guide.AI creates audio guides on behalf of clients for £150, using content provided by the client.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion2 records

Distribution channels4 records

Marketing channels5 records

Core offering

Guide.AI is a DIY platform that lets anyone create, publish and sell AI-powered smartphone audio guides for cultural and historical content. Authors supply scripts and pictures; the platform uses AI text-to-speech and automatic translation (13 languages) to generate audio, and then distributes guides through iOS, Android and web apps with GPS-based discovery. Revenue comes from subscription plans, a revenue-share on guide sales (Guide.AI retains 60%), bespoke organization deals and a paid concierge creation service.

Product overview

Guide.AI is a landmark audio guide platform that consists of the Author Portal Website (for creating and managing guides), the Guide.AI App (available on Google Android, Apple iPhone, and as a web-app for experiencing guides), and audio guide content in three formats: Map (GPS-based for outdoor destinations), Floor Plan (for indoor locations), and Signs (for locations requiring physical navigation aids). The platform uses AI text-to-speech and translation technology to generate audio guides automatically from scripts and pictures in 13 languages. Authors can sell guides through Revenue Share or Subscription models, with Guide.AI handling payments via Stripe. Optional features include Official Guide Status and a Concierge Service for guide creation assistance.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Guide.AI App Consumer-facing application available on Google Android, Apple iPhone and as a web app that allows end users to discover, preview, purchase, download and experience audio guides using GPS-based location and proximity-based discovery for cultural and historical destinations.
• Author Portal Website Web-based platform enabling guide authors to create, edit, manage and publish audio guides using AI text-to-speech and translation, with access to Guide Analytics and Official Guide Status application.
• Guide.AI Concierge Service For £150, Guide.AI creates an audio guide on behalf of the client if they supply content but lack the time to develop the guide themselves.

Named customers5 records

Segments5 records

Ideal customer profiles4 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration3 records

AI capability5 records

Feature5 records

Partnerships

One partnership is on record.

• StripecoreTechnology or IntegrationStripe is used as the payment processing platform for all Guide.AI transactions. Financial security is handled through Stripe for both authors receiving payments and the platform processing transactions. Authors are automatically paid on the first of each month through Stripe.

Scale indicators4 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Emerging players

• Smartify: Smartify is a museum and gallery app that provides object recognition, audio guides and visitor engagement content. Comparable as a smartphone-based visitor-experience platform for museums, though its core strength is visual recognition rather than authored audio tours.
• GPSmyCity: GPSmyCity offers self-guided walking tours and audio guides across many global cities via mobile and web apps. Comparable in DIY walking-tour and audio-guide distribution, with overlap in location-based discovery and consumer-paid tour monetization.
• Ganymede: Ganymede (formerly Storic) provides cultural and historical storytelling apps with location-aware content. Comparable as a younger player focused on audio storytelling for cultural/heritage sites, with overlap in target venue types (museums, heritage walks).

Direct peers

• PocketSights: PocketSights offers a self-guided audio tour platform primarily serving North American cities, museums and tours. Comparable as a smartphone-native audio guide marketplace with location-based discovery and author/institution publishing.
• izi.Travel: izi.Travel is a DIY audio tour platform that lets museums, cities and individuals publish self-guided smartphone tours across multiple languages. Closest direct competitor to Guide.AI in author-onboarding model, mobile-app distribution and multilingual tourism content.
• TourSphere: TourSphere is a white-label audio tour platform sold to tour operators, DMOs and attractions. Comparable as a B2B audio-guide delivery platform with mobile-app distribution and per-tour pricing models used by cultural and tourism organizations.
• VoiceMap: VoiceMap is a GPS-triggered audio tour platform where local authors create and sell walking-tour audio guides. Closely comparable in business model (author-led content, location-triggered playback, per-tour revenue share) though VoiceMap relies on human narration rather than AI TTS.
• STQRY (Steller / STQRY Guides): STQRY provides mobile audio guide and collection-management software for museums, galleries and tours. Comparable as a B2B SaaS for cultural institutions to publish self-guided smartphone tours with location-triggered audio, similar in venue focus and delivery mechanism.

Broad incumbents

• Bloomberg Connects: Bloomberg Connects is a free app aggregating digital content (audio guides, videos, tours) from major cultural institutions. Comparable as a higher-reach cultural-content distribution platform that competes for the same museum visitor mindshare, but is institution-funded rather than a marketplace.
• Detour (acquired by Bose): Detour was a high-profile location-based audio walking-tour app acquired by Bose. Comparable as a directly relevant prior-generation audio-tour platform whose trajectory illustrates both the consumer appeal of location-based audio and the difficulty of building a durable business in this niche.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Facebookfacebook.com/profile.php
• Instagraminstagram.com/guide.ai
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/guide-ai

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Guide AI