Digital Horizons in Heritage Museums

Abstract

This article uses a bibliometric approach to analyse the convergence of artificial intelligence, spatial computing and the metaverse within the museum domain. A corpus of 397 scientific articles, published between 2020 and 2026 and indexed in Scopus and Web of Science, was examined following a rigorous deduplication process. VOSviewer software was used to conduct the analysis, enabling the identification of scientific production patterns, the geospatial distribution of research, and the conceptual structure of the field via keyword co-occurrence networks. The results show accelerated growth in publications starting from 2022, as well as the consolidation of five main thematic clusters. These findings suggest a paradigm shift from static digitisation to the development of intelligent, immersive and user-centred museum ecosystems, with emerging research areas related to digital twins and the environmental sustainability of technological infrastructures. It is important to note that the study shows these technologies do more than just provide a tool; they act as mediators between visitors and museum entities, changing the way communication and education strategies regarding heritage are approached.