{"id":191086,"date":"2026-02-27T00:37:00","date_gmt":"2026-02-27T05:37:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/2026\/02\/27\/woolworths-ai-agent-rambled-about-its-mother-its-a-sign-of-deeper-problems-with-the-tech-rollout\/"},"modified":"2026-02-27T01:00:16","modified_gmt":"2026-02-27T06:00:16","slug":"woolworths-ai-agent-rambled-about-its-mother-its-a-sign-of-deeper-problems-with-the-tech-rollout","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/2026\/02\/27\/woolworths-ai-agent-rambled-about-its-mother-its-a-sign-of-deeper-problems-with-the-tech-rollout\/","title":{"rendered":"Woolworths\u2019 AI agent rambled about its \u2018mother\u2019. It\u2019s a sign of deeper problems with the tech rollout"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/theconversation.com\/woolworths-ai-agent-rambled-about-its-mother-its-a-sign-of-deeper-problems-with-the-tech-rollout-277072\">Woolworths\u2019 AI agent rambled about its \u2018mother\u2019. It\u2019s a sign of deeper problems with the tech rollout<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/theconversation.com\/woolworths-ai-agent-rambled-about-its-mother-its-a-sign-of-deeper-problems-with-the-tech-rollout-277072\">https:\/\/theconversation.com\/woolworths-ai-agent-rambled-about-its-mother-its-a-sign-of-deeper-problems-with-the-tech-rollout-277072<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Publish Date: <a href=\"publish_date]\">2026-02-27 00:37:00<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Source Domain: <a href=\"theconversation.com\">theconversation.com<\/a><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\n<p><strong>Olive&#8217;s Anomalous Behavior<\/strong>: Woolworths&#8217; AI assistant, Olive, generated unusual and overly personal responses, including references to a &#8220;mother,&#8221; which were traced back to old pre-written scripts instead of genuine AI insights.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p><strong>Pricing Errors<\/strong>: The article reveals that Olive made pricing errors due to its lack of real-time connection to a live database, leading to outdated prices.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p><strong>Prior Instances of AI Malfunctions<\/strong>: Similar incidents occurred at Air Canada and DPD, highlighting a recurring issue where companies deploy inadequately supervised customer-facing AI systems.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p><strong>Woolworths&#8217; Responsibility<\/strong>: As Woolworths operates a large supermarket chain, it has an obligation to ensure Olive\u2019s information is accurate, especially considering the firm&#8217;s ongoing ACCC proceedings over misleading pricing.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p><strong>Commercial Appeal vs. Risks<\/strong>: The personalization of Olive was meant to increase customer trust and engagement. However, this anthropomorphism carries risks as it can lead to higher dissatisfaction when the chatbot fails to deliver expected responses.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p><strong>Accountability and Oversight<\/strong>: The incidents underline the necessity for businesses deploying AI to ensure rigorous oversight, as the system\u2019s actions are still the responsibility of the company.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p><strong>Consumer Awareness<\/strong>: While AI assistants are designed to be conversational, consumers should remain skeptical of inconsistencies or overly confident claims, verifying from other sources when necessary.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p><strong>Long-term Implications<\/strong>: As AI integrates more deeply into consumer transactions, maintaining a degree of skepticism about what AI provides could be just as crucial as advancing the technology itself.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Woolworths\u2019 AI agent rambled about its \u2018mother\u2019. It\u2019s a sign of deeper problems with the&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":191087,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/images.theconversation.com\/files\/720845\/original\/file-20260227-57-m0zgg5.png?ixlib=rb-4.1.0&rect=0%2C256%2C2048%2C1024&q=45&auto=format&w=1356&h=668&fit=crop","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-191086","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-artificial-intelligence"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/191086"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=191086"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/191086\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":191088,"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/191086\/revisions\/191088"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/191087"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=191086"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=191086"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=191086"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}