Photo: AFL x FutureLabs - AI Photobooth experience at the AFL Grand Final Village
AI photo booths are becoming a familiar feature at brand activations, sporting events, product launches and live experiences. Unlike a traditional photo booth that simply captures an image and adds a fixed frame or filter, an AI photo booth can transform a guest into something entirely new.
At a basic level, an AI photo booth captures a guest’s image and uses generative AI to create a personalised visual in real time. But for brands, the process involves much more than connecting a camera to an AI image generator. A successful activation brings together the creative concept, guest journey, AI-powered transformation, physical setup and final content delivery as one connected experience.
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An AI photo booth is an interactive event experience that captures a guest’s photo and uses artificial intelligence, usually generative AI, to create a new personalised image based on that person.
Instead of applying the same graphic overlay to every photograph, AI can reinterpret the original image using a specific creative direction. This might involve changing a guest’s outfit, placing them in a different environment, recreating them in another visual style or turning them into a completely new campaign character.
The result remains recognisably personal to the guest, while the surrounding visual world can be designed around the brand, event or campaign.This is one of the main differences between an AI photo booth and a traditional photo booth.
For experiential marketing, that personalisation can make the photo itself part of the experience rather than simply a record of it.
At FutureLabs, we have used this approach to create AI-powered activations where the transformation connects directly to the campaign story.
Deloitte's 2026 Digital Media Trends survey, based on nearly 3,600 US consumers, found that almost 40% of people would accept AI-generated entertainment content as long as it's clearly labelled as AI-made, and close to 30% specifically want AI-generated, personalised content built around their own experience rather than a generic version everyone else gets (Deloitte, 2026).
PwC's 2025 Customer Experience Survey found that more than half of consumers say it's worth sharing personal data if it makes their interaction with a brand smoother (PwC, 2025)
Put together, this is the environment AI photo experiences are built for: content people are increasingly open to, personalisation people actively want, and a natural moment for guests to opt in rather than being asked to.
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From the guest’s perspective, an AI photo booth should feel simple: step into the experience, take a photo, watch it transform and receive something personal to take away.
Behind that simple interaction, the experience is designed to connect the guest more closely with the brand. Rather than giving everyone the same photograph, AI allows each person to become part of the campaign in their own way.
A typical AI photo booth experience can be broken into five stages.
The best AI photo booth activations do not begin with the question: “What can AI generate?”
They begin with: “What would our audience actually want to become, create or take away from this event?”
For a sports activation, that might mean transforming fans into players from another era. For an entertainment campaign, guests might enter the visual world of a film or character. For a product launch, the transformation could be inspired by the product, campaign aesthetic or brand identity.
At FutureLabs, we approach AI photo booths as part of a wider experiential marketing idea. The AI transformation is designed around the brand, audience and event context so that the output feels connected to the campaign rather than like a generic AI effect.
Once a guest enters the activation, they may be invited to make a simple choice before taking their photograph.
Depending on the campaign, they could choose a team, character, visual style, era, environment, product or campaign theme. These choices give people some control over what they create and make the final result feel more personal.
The experience does not need to be complicated. In fact, at a busy event, fewer and more meaningful choices can often create a better interaction.
For brands, the value of personalisation is that two people can participate in the same campaign and walk away with different content. That creates a very different relationship from traditional event advertising, where everyone sees the same message.
Instead of simply showing the audience a campaign, an AI photo booth can allow the audience to create their own version of it.
After the photo is captured, AI uses the guest’s image to generate a personalised version based on the creative concept. The transformation might change their clothing, surroundings, character, style or entire visual environment.
For the audience, this is the reveal moment, this is where AI can add value to experiential marketing.
At FutureLabs, we see AI as a creative tool that can help brands move from “look at our campaign” to “put yourself inside our campaign.” That shift can make an interaction more memorable because the audience is contributing to the final result.
The experience does not have to end when the image appears on screen.
The finished visual can become a piece of personalised branded content that guests can:
For brands, this creates value beyond the few moments someone spends at the booth. A traditional event photograph records what happened. A well-designed AI photo booth can create something people would not have been able to make themselves - giving them more reason to save or share it.
That second layer can help extend an activation beyond the event space, particularly when the result has genuine entertainment or social value.
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Ultimately, the success of an AI photo booth is not determined by how technically impressive the image generation is. The more important question is: Does the experience make the guest feel more connected to the campaign?
The strongest AI activations create a clear relationship between the transformation and the brand. If the logo were removed and the same experience could belong to any company, the creative connection probably is not strong enough.
For FutureLabs, that means considering the full experience - from the idea and interface to the transformation and final takeaway - as one connected piece of brand storytelling.
A successful activation should leave guests remembering more than the fact that they “used AI”. They should remember what they became, what they created and the brand that made that moment possible.
That is where an AI photo booth moves beyond novelty and becomes a useful experiential marketing tool.
AI photo booths are becoming more common, but the technology alone is not what makes an activation successful. The strongest experiences are built around a clear idea, a relevant audience moment and a personalised result that people genuinely want to engage with.
At FutureLabs, we combine creative thinking, experience design and technology to build AI-powered brand activations that work across both physical and digital environments.
Our approach is not to treat an AI photo booth as a one-size-fits-all product. Instead, we look at what the brand wants to achieve, how the audience should participate and what kind of experience will feel most relevant in the context of the event.
That can include AI photo booths, generative visuals, interactive games, real-time systems, immersive environments and other forms of creative technology.
Explore FutureLabs AI Photobooths for events and activations →
Discover FutureLabs interactive brand experiences →
If you're exploring how AI could become part of your next brand activation, FutureLabs can help shape the idea, experience and execution around your audience.
Get in touch with FutureLabs to discuss your next activation →
