Customers at retail and leisure complex Liverpool ONE can now interact with an artificial intelligence-powered ‘digital assistant’ called ‘Liv’. Tony McDonough reports

Retail and leisure complex Liverpool ONE is now using the power of artificial intelligence to interact with its customers.

Called ‘Liv’, the digital assistant has Liverpool ONE’s guest services team to support customers and staff, and to collect feedback on ways to improve the visitor experience at the destination.

Liv has been brought to the complex by Sum Vivas, a Liverpool-based tech business that won Grosvenor and Liverpool ONE’s Innovation Challenge last year, working in collaboration with investment and innovation firm, True.

Sum Vivas’ hyper-realistic, AI-powered Digital Humans have previously been showcased at New York Fashion Week and are designed to communicate, interact and engage with people.

Engineered with natural language processing and machine learning capabilities, Liv is able to understand and respond to a wide range of queries in real-time and has been designed to interact with customers.

Liverpool ONE and Sum Vivas will assess the impact of Liv on the guest experience over a month-long trial, following which Liv may be offered a permanent role.

Chris Jukes, Grosvenor’s director of Liverpool ONE, said: “It is brilliant to host Sum Vivas’ Digital Human, Liv, who will not only add something unique to the visitor experience, but also allows us to collect even more insight to inform future decisions.

“Technology and AI are having a growing influence on the future of retail and it is important we embrace what is available, testing concepts that enhance the experience.

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“That said, we remain committed to balancing these innovations within a human-centric environment and this is reflected in Liv’s ability to provide things like information for Swifties, alongside details about Liverpool ONE’s shops, restaurants and leisure offer.”

Rob Sims, founder and chief executive of Sum Vivas, added: “Winning Liverpool ONE’s Innovation Challenge has awarded us the opportunity to further develop and showcase the benefits our AI-powered Digital Assistants bring.”