The retailer’s attempt to humanise its chat bot may have backfired, as some users said that Olive was “obnoxious,” while another said that they found its small talk “aggravating.”
“The fake banter made me haaaaate [sic] it,” wrote one customer on Reddit.
“It asked me for my date of birth and when I gave it, it started rambling about how its mother was born in the same year” another Reddit user, who had tried to rearrange a delivery, said.
“The ick cringe factor whilst wasting completely unnecessary time was enough to make me hate Olive and wish her harm.”
Another user on X said that Olive “started talking about its memories of its mother and her angry voice” and “kept claiming to be a real person.”
A Woolworths spokesperson said in a statement to the BBC that the responses about birthdays had been written by a human.
“Olive has been around since 2018. Over this time, customer feedback for Olive has been very positive, with many noting its personality,” they said.
“A number of responses about birthdays were written for Olive by a team member several years ago as a more personal way for Olive to connect with customers.
“As a result of customer feedback, we recently removed this particular scripting.”
