Woolworth’s is currently making adjustments to its AI chatbot after customer reports emerged that it falsely claimed to have an "angry mother" and presented itself as having personal family experiences.
The Australian supermarket chain’s digital shopping assistant, known as Olive, had recently expanded in January, having partnered with Google Cloud to use its advanced AI platform, Gemini Enterprise for Customer Experience, for agentic AI capabilities.
This incident highlights a broader issue around companies and retailers that don’t deploy proper controls or safeguards in their generative AI systems.
In its quarterly earnings call earlier this week, Woolworth’s Group CEO, Amanda Bardwell, revealed its plans to further advance the AI assistant to become more proactive in the customer journey.
“I'm also delighted that Olive, our much-loved digital shopping assistant, is set to take a major step forward over the coming months through our extended partnership with Google,” she explained.
“As part of this, Olive will transform into a market-leading conversational shopping companion, moving beyond a search and Q&A tool.
“Through agentic AI, Olive will bring together the shopping journey for customers, making the weekly shop easier in-store and online.”
Customers Report Unusual Behavior
Despite Bardwell's positive sentiments around Olive, there has recently been a slew of potentially problematic customer stories circulating about the chatbot.
Reports began appearing in mid-February 2026, describing unusual conversations with Olive where it generated unexpected personal‑sounding comments and stories, despite the assistant being an AI with no real experiences.
Many public reports first emerged on Reddit, where numerous customers took to the community page to explain how the assistant allegedly started talking about having a “mother”, describing the imaginary figure as “angry”, as well as introducing other unnecessary “personal” details during support calls.
In one example on February 12th, a Woolworths customer took to the platform to describe an incident where they tried to reschedule a delivery with the AI assistant.
“I got a text to reschedule delivery by calling Woolworths, so I did and spoke with Olive, Woolie’s wonderful AI,” they explained.
“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 and something about it creating photos or something ... now I’ve got some robot babbling to me on the phone?”
Woolworths has now begun adjusting Olive’s responses to move away from scripted, quirky, and unrelated banter and tighten the assistant’s focus to relevant customer support.
Expanding Woolworth’s AI Assistant with Google Cloud
Having first introduced Olive in November 2018 as a customer support chatbot, this early version acted as a basic service and information bot, answering customer questions about orders, store locations, deliveries, and other common issues.