Kaatsheuvel, Friday, 28 November 2025.
At Efteling, the Fata Morgana souvenir shop began using AI-driven character animations this Friday, turning static market figures into real-time, language-aware sellers that speak to passing guests. The system runs localized generative animation on edge hardware to avoid latency and keep interactions appropriate for the EU market, effectively extending attraction storytelling into retail to influence dwell time and per-capita spend. For retail planners, the deployment is a controlled, front-of-house test of synthetic media with clear operational trade-offs: content moderation and IP governance, hardware lifecycle and maintenance in high-traffic spaces, data-privacy and visible opt-out for audio/visual capture, and the logistics of rolling model updates across assets. Strategically, parks must choose between on-premises and cloud vendors, verify regulatory compliance, and define metrics—dwell time, conversion lift, and guest sentiment—to justify scale. The pilot signals a sector shift toward integrated AI merchandising, offering experiential uplift but demanding disciplined governance and oversight.