The Entertainer rolls out festive chatbot

Toy retailer The Entertainer has teamed up with Red Ant to build an AI driven online Christmas chat service.

Customers will be able to ask about the toys and games they can buy. Santa, a costumed version of the retailer’s animated mascot Jack, will also offer up facts, jokes and information about Christmas, via both voice and text input. Dan Mortimer, CEO at Red Ant, says: “This project was a terrific example of international collaboration between our UK and Hong Kong teams who worked with The Entertainer to build a virtual assistant which is not only fun to use but also delivers a commercial benefit with genuinely cutting-edge cognitive technology.”

Rob Wood, Head of Online and Digital at The Entertainer, says: “We knew that Red Ant has expertise in developing AI projects, and we wanted to use their experience to deliver a virtual assistant that ticks all the boxes. We wanted something that was fun, relevant and genuinely useful, and Santa Chat is all three. It also paves the way for future connected retail initiatives.”