“Hello. I’m Alfred Premium, your personal shopper. What can I do for you?” Alfred Premium is a Facebook Messenger conversation on the future of e-commerce. By interacting with Alfred, a Messenger bot mimicking the codes of artificial intelligence, users learn about the technical, social, and human implications of the new economic order in a digital society.
“Hello. I’m Alfred Premium, your personal shopper. What can I do for you?” Alfred Premium is a Facebook Messenger conversation on the future of e-commerce. By interacting with Alfred, a Messenger bot mimicking the codes of artificial intelligence, users learn about the technical, social, and human implications of the new economic order in a digital society.
Alfred Premium is a “personal shopper” bot at the concept stage. He needs to learn as much as possible about human behaviour and online purchasing. By learning from your responses, he formulates your buying profile and helps you better understand how your new purchasing behaviours profoundly alter your habits and shopping practices in our digital world.
It’s no secret that Amazon and Airbnb are shaking up traditional commerce. While some worship at the shrine of the sharing economy, others are vandalizing Uber cars. But whether you’re for it or against it, the world has already changed. And the major players in the digital economy are the ones who are one step ahead of the rest.
ALFRED PREMIUM is a documentary account of the future of e-commerce, told in the format of the Facebook Messenger conversation. Alfred is your new personal shopper. He’s a chatbot whose sole objective is to free you from endless cycle of buying. For better or for worse. On the Internet, wherever you are, whatever you’re doing, your wish is just a click away. Are you ready to let Alfred take control?
Our goal is to take you to the other side of the debate, straight to the heart of what happens when you make a purchase. For some people, those stuck in the sales funnel, it’s become an endless process. As transactions become more and more fluid, they have less of a beginning or an end – wish lists that continually grow, abandoned shopping carts, email reminders to return to your incomplete purchase…
Produced by ARTE France and the National Film Board of Canada (NFB), ALFRED PREMIUM is also available on web browsers as well as on Google Home and Alexa smart speakers (spring 2019).
Creative Team
Original idea by Joel Ronez in collaboration with Pierre Corbinais and Émilie F. Grenier. An ARTE France and NFB coproduction.
Original Idea
Joël Ronez
Screenplay for Messenger and Web
Pierre Corbinais
Creative Director
Émilie F. Grenier
Quebec Adaptation
Catherine Éthier
Screenplay for Social Media and Smart Speaker
Simon Boileau
Art Direction and Data Visualization
Anouk Pennel (Feed)
Léon Lo (Feed)
Research and Design
under the direction of Joël Ronez
with the participation of:
Naël Schiab
Xavier Kronström Richard
Karen Bastien (WeDoData)
Sybil Collas
Léa Dabssi
Fanny Huard
Researcher
Chloé Freslon
Creators of Travel Site Video
Nicolas Wan
Xavier De La Porte
English Translator
Julie Matlin
German Translator
Christian Stonner
Production Assistant
Iris Ollivault
Special thanks
Valérie Duhaime
Julien Cayer
Marie-Catherine Beuth
Austin Dains (Shopify)
This experience uses Ink Script language developed by Inkle Studio
A co-production
National Film Board of Canada
ARTE France
National Film Board of Canada
Executive Producer
Hugues Sweeney
Producer and Technology Director
Martin Viau
Editorial Manager
Valérie Darveau
Production Manager
Marie-Ève Babineau
Production Coordinators
Claudia Boutin
Dominique Brunet
Caroline Fournier
Perrine Bral
Administrator
Marie-Andrée Bonneau
Marketing Agent
Tammy Peddle
Marketing Coordinators
Sophie Thouin
Florent Prévelle
Stéphanie Quévillon
Social Media Strategist
Émilie Nguyen
Web Content Project Manager
Félix-Antoine Viens
Press Relations
Marie-Claude Lamoureux
Jennifer Mair
Information Technologies
Sergiu Suciu
Legal Services
Peter Kallianiotis
Arte FRANCE
Director of Digital Development
Gilles Freissinier
Editorial Manager
Marianne Levy-Leblond
Program Officers
Marie Berthoumieu
Emilie Bessard
Web Project Managers
Virginie Béjot
Adrien Larouzée
Administrators
Jérôme Vernet
Social Media
Florence Danon
Guillaume Ladvie
Léa Jagut
ARTE France Development
Production Directors
Angèle Le Névé
Claire Aubret
Assisted by
Juliette Droillard
ARTE Studio Lab
Service Manager
Clément Dhamelincourt
Technical Directors
Vincent Chagny
Simon Oualid
Developers
Pietro Hyde Primo
Térence Marill
Project Manager
Noé Daudin-Clavaud
©National Film Board of Canada – ARTE France 2019
