Sherlock is a virtual AI agent built to help participants navigate complex exhibitions with ease. It acts as a personalized guide, offering instant answers and tailored recommendations to every attendee and exhibitor. By activating Sherlock, you provide a smarter event experience that increases engagement while significantly reducing the workload for your onsite support team.
Sherlock understands the context of your event, including user roles and permissions. It helps participants turn information overload into a clear, actionable plan.
Key capabilities
People: Recommends relevant connections, helps send requests, and suggests meeting locations.
Sessions: Discovers sessions by topic or interest and answers onsite logistic questions.
Products: Surfaces exhibitor products matching a user's needs and facilitates bookmarking.
Exhibitors & Booths: Finds specific booths and provides guidance on how to get there.
Facilities: Answers questions about parking, accessibility, opening hours, and maps.
App Support: Provides real-time guidance on how to use various event app features.
Recommendations: Delivers AI-powered recommendations for people, exhibitors, products, and sessions, all matched to each participant's profile.
Networking & Meetings: Sends connection requests with personalized messages, lists available meeting slots, schedules or cancels meetings, and manages inbound requests — all via natural language.
Multilingual support: Responds in the participant's language, even if they switch mid-conversation.
How do I enable Sherlock for my event?
To activate the agent:
Go to the Studio and click AI Agent.
Once here, click Enable Agent.
Sherlock is currently in Beta and is available for free for a limited time. This gives you the opportunity to try the feature and provide feedback to help shape the future of AI at your events.
💡 Tip: Once enabled in Studio, Sherlock automatically appears for your users on the latest version of the Swapcard web and mobile apps — no additional setup required.
How do attendees and exhibitors benefit?
For attendees, Sherlock reduces decision fatigue by highlighting "hidden gems" and relevant sessions they might otherwise miss. It ensures they don't leave the event wishing they had seen a specific speaker or missed a key meeting.
Exhibitors benefit from smarter networking by identifying the best leads instead of relying on random walk-ins. Sherlock also explains how to use exhibitor tools, such as lead capturing, to ensure they get the highest ROI from their presence.
Sherlock is a full lead management workstation for exhibitor teams — from ICP-powered prospecting to a one-command XLSX export. No spreadsheets required, until you actually want one.
Sherlock on mobile
iOS and Android
Sherlock is available on the Swapcard iOS and Android apps, putting a personal concierge in every participant's pocket. The mobile experience is optimized for the pace of an onsite event: Sherlock knows who the user is, their permissions, and the layout of your venue.
On mobile, participants can:
Manage schedules on the fly: Ask "Find a session about AI starting in 10 minutes" or "Show me my next meeting" while walking between booths.
Surface leads in real time: Exhibitors can ask "Who are the most relevant leads for me to meet today?" without sitting down at a laptop.
Get instant support anywhere: From finding the nearest restroom to "How do I scan a lead?", Sherlock handles repetitive FAQs so your onsite staff can focus on high-touch support.
💡 Tip: If you have already enabled the AI Agent in Studio, Sherlock will automatically appear for your users on the latest version of the Swapcard mobile app. No extra steps needed.
Sherlock on WhatsApp & Guest Mode
Sherlock is reachable before, during, and after the event — even for people who haven't registered yet. Two new access points extend its reach beyond the event app.
Attendees and guests can message the Swapcard WhatsApp account and interact with Sherlock directly from the channel they already use every day. Over WhatsApp, Sherlock can:
Answer questions about any content marked available for guests in Studio (sessions, speakers, exhibitors, venue info, and more)
Provide Help Center support and answer common questions without attendees needing to contact your team
Help guests explore sessions and get oriented before they've even registered
Send a Magic Link to an attendee's email so they can log straight into the app — no password needed
A QR code that opens a WhatsApp conversation with Sherlock can be displayed onsite, making it easy to get attendees engaged the moment they arrive.
💡 Tip: Announce the Swapcard WhatsApp channel in your pre-event communications with a link or QR code. Attendees who connect before arrival show up informed, and your team handles a fraction of the usual day-of questions.
Guest Mode (Event App)
Sherlock is also available to unauthenticated users directly inside the event app. Guests arriving via a public link or your event website can open Sherlock and get answers without creating an account.
The Sherlock button is visible to unauthenticated users on the event app
Same capabilities as WhatsApp: guest content, Help Center, event discovery, and Magic Link login
Content scope respected: only content marked "available for guests" in Studio is surfaced; attendee-only content stays protected
Smart redirects: if Sherlock identifies a guest as an existing participant mid-conversation, redirect links open the app in their logged-in state
⚙️ Before going live: Audit which content is marked "available for guests" in Studio. Sessions, speaker bios, and venue logistics should all be guest-accessible so Sherlock can give genuinely useful answers to anyone who reaches out.
Is the AI agent safe and secure?
The agent has undergone a rigorous security audit to protect your event data. Specific prompt injection protections are in place to prevent malicious manipulation of the AI's responses.
Additionally, safety filters are configured to block any harmful content. This ensures that the interaction remains professional, secure, and aligned with your event's environment and safety standards.
Sherlock is more than a chatbot; it is a strategic layer of intelligence that transforms a complex exhibition into a curated journey. For organizers, it acts as a force multiplier for support teams. For participants, it removes the friction of "what do I do next?" by turning vast amounts of data into actionable, personalized plans. By bridging the gap between your event's content and a user's specific goals, Sherlock ensures that every minute spent at your event is productive, professional, and high-impact.