In the final edition of our Meet the Founders series we meet Benjamin Hughes and Caleb Coverdale, founders of Aurorion who are leveraging AI technology to reimagine how people connect with and experience history.

Tell us about your start-up – what problem are you solving and why does it matter? 

Aurorion is an interactive, voice-first platform for cultural heritage. It enables travellers and heritage visitors to have natural conversations with historical characters and digital guides connected to the place they are exploring.

Cultural and heritage destinations hold hundreds, sometimes thousands of years of stories. Yet these stories are still commonly presented through plaques, printed leaflets and traditional audio guides. These formats can be informative, but they offer limited opportunities for visitors to explore their own questions and interests.

Aurorion brings historical characters to life using trusted source material, distinctive voices and carefully developed personalities. Instead of following a fixed, curator-led narrative, visitors can ask questions and discover the stories that interest them most. Our aim is to make exploring history more personal, engaging and conversational.

Tell us more about the team at Aurorion and your background? 

Benjamin Hughes is Aurorion’s Co-Founder and CEO. A filmmaker who has produced and directed documentaries and short films, he brings experience in storytelling, creative direction and vision-led product design.

Caleb Coverdale is Aurorion’s Co-Founder and CTO. A systems architect specialising in automation, scalable infrastructure and secure platforms, he previously built a remote-access system for Tourmaline Oil connecting more than 75 facilities and 1,000 operators.

Together, they combine creative and technical expertise to make cultural experiences more engaging and accessible through technology.

What inspired you to start this company? Was there a personal story behind it?

Aurorion began with Ben’s love of travelling and discovering the stories behind the places he visited. During the early days of conversational AI, he experimented with creating his own voice-based tour guide. It could tell him about ruined castles in the Scottish Highlands and the battles and events that had taken place there over the centuries.

The idea developed during a road trip from London to Edinburgh with his nieces. Ben imagined a digital guide that already understood where you were and what you were looking at, without requiring you to write a new prompt every time you wanted to ask a question.

He pitched the idea to his friend Caleb, and within weeks they had built their first prototype. Caleb then imagined taking the experience further: what if people could speak to characters in the real world as naturally as they interact with characters in a video game?

That shared idea became Aurorion, a platform where people can have voice conversations with historical characters grounded in trusted information and connected to real places.

What are your goals during the accelerator programme? 

During the accelerator programme, we want to strengthen the way Aurorion uses location data, helping us deliver faster, more reliable and more contextually relevant experiences.

We also want to launch Aurorion publicly and make the transition from product testing and customer validation towards sustainable growth. Geovation Scotland’s expertise in location and property technology makes it an ideal environment in which to develop both the product and the business.

What has been your proudest moment so far as founders? 

Our proudest moments have come from demonstrating Aurorion to heritage organisations and seeing their faces light up as they imagine new ways to bring their places, stories and collections to life.

Those conversations have shown us the breadth of what Aurorion could enable, from making a visit more engaging and personal to helping organisations open up parts of their collections that visitors might otherwise never encounter.

How can people support you? 

Be among the first to explore the world this way. Aurorion is launching its public beta soon, and you can join us at aurorion.app to help shape the future of how people experience places.

Get early access. Influence the product. Travel with a guide who understands your world. 

Website: https://aurorion.app

Benjamin LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/benjamindhughes/

Caleb LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/caleb-coverdale-29b31752/ 

Company LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/auroriontechltd