In Plato’s Phaedrus (~370 BCE), Socrates laments the use of written accounts of great orations. The failing, in his view, lies in the inability of the written word to capture and convey the passion, virtue and context that underpin a lived performance. In this dialogue Plato presents perhaps the first critique of a “learning technology” (i.e. writing), and the limitations of the technical artifacts produced. Millenia later, modern educators are faced with the challenge of generative AI, a system trained solely on artifacts and lacking in passion, virtue or any sense of context or lived experience. Generative AI has the potential to undermine students’ depth of engagement and capacity for synthesis of theory and concepts by providing ready-made content which students may not be in a position to interrogate for accuracy. However, herein we demonstrate the use of this technology to create learning opportunities that shift the focus from artifacts to authentic, contextually relevant experiences for students. The VISTA project, funded via the Higher Education Authority of Ireland SATLE fund, explored technological advances in non-expert user 360 cameras, image manipulation software, generative artificial intelligence, and virtual tour to transform both the concept and the experience of industrial site visits. We report the design and deployment of this novel approach with undergraduate students in the School of Microbiology at UCC, to provide photorealistic, interactive, multiplatform, virtual access to industrial sites, together with AI based manipulations to create unique experiential learning opportunities. Aspects of scalability, sustainability and adaptability are also highlighted.