MetaHuman Václav Laurin — AI-Powered Digital Avatar for ŠKODA
YORD built a hyper-realistic MetaHuman of Václav Laurin, Škoda's co-founder, so museum visitors could meet the man behind the marque rather than read about him. Built in Unreal Engine, the avatar leads an interactive story through the company's history, with a gamified discovery mechanic and a digital collectible as the reward for completing it. One in four visitors engaged with the avatar. In 2025 the experience was adapted for Milan Design Week.
Build a brand
Škoda wanted museum visitors to connect with the company's heritage rather than read about it on a wall panel. The brief was an immersive, interactive museum experience built around Václav Laurin, the company's co-founder — someone visitors could meet and talk to, not just learn about.
The agency's contribution
YORD designed and developed the digital human and the experience around it: the photorealistic MetaHuman of Václav Laurin, the interactive storytelling that drives the conversation, the gamified discovery mechanic that moves visitors through the museum, and the digital collectible visitors earn at the end. In 2025 we adapted the experience for Milan Design Week.
What was delivered
1 in 4 customers engaged with the avatar. Figure provided by YORD; the counting method and the definition of an engagement have not been independently verified here.
Measurement period: Museum installation period
Challenge
Brand heritage is one of Škoda's strongest assets and one of the hardest things to make anyone care about. In a museum it usually arrives as dates on a panel and objects behind glass — accurate, and easy to walk past.
Škoda wanted an immersive, interactive museum experience instead: a way for visitors to encounter Václav Laurin, the company's co-founder, as a presence in the room. That set a high bar on two fronts. The avatar had to be photorealistic enough to be convincing at close range, and the interaction had to hold the attention of a visitor who did not come looking for it.
Solution
We built a hyper-realistic MetaHuman of Václav Laurin in Unreal Engine and wrapped an experience around him.
**Interactive storytelling.**Laurin tells the company's story himself, responding to the visitor rather than playing a fixed film.**Gamified discovery.**A quest mechanic gives visitors a reason to move through the museum and look closely at what is there.A reward worth finishing for. Completing the quest earns a digital collectible, so the visit ends with something the visitor keeps.
YORD handled design and development throughout, from the avatar's likeness and performance to the interaction design and the quest. In 2025 we adapted the same experience for Milan Design Week.
Results
One in four customers engaged with the avatar.
For a voluntary exhibit competing with everything else in a museum, that is a quarter of visitors choosing to stop and have a conversation with the founder instead of walking past a panel about him. The experience proved portable too: it was adapted for Milan Design Week in 2025.
