Digital human, ‘Liv’, set to enhance the customer experience at Liverpool ONE

Liverpool ONE, one of Europe’s leading retail and entertainment destinations, has introduced an AI digital assistant to augment the customer experience. Named ‘Liv’, the Digital Human has joined 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 destination 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.

Liv’s arrival coincides with a series of Taylor Swift concerts at Anfield Stadium as part of her Eras tour.  Liverpool ONE is anticipating an additional 100,000 visitors and a £12 million boost in sales from visitors attending the three sell-out concerts on June 13, 14 and 15.  To help visiting Swifties, Liv will be able to answer questions specifically related to the concerts, including “How can I get to Anfield Stadium?” and “What is your favourite Taylor Swift song?”.

Chris Jukes, Grosvenor’s Director of Liverpool ONE, commented: “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 about Liverpool ONE.  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.  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 CEO 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, and the value they can add to both the customer journey and collating insights. Grosvenor and Liverpool ONE have been great partners, and we are excited to see how visitors engage with Liv.”

The introduction of ‘Liv’ coincides with Liverpool ONE’s launch of its new Guest Services Team, providing a welcoming and efficient visitor experience to Liverpool ONE as part of the UK’s most sociable city. Hosting over 22m visitors every year, Liverpool ONE is a vital part of the Liverpool City Region’s visitor economy, which was worth £5bn in 2022.