A local graphic design and web development firm has launched an AI-powered chatbot service for Bermuda.

SJD World founder and creative director Stephan Johnstone said there are firms using chatbots on the island, but not many that he knew of were pairing chatbots with artificial intelligence.

“The ones that do not have AI behind them are based on logic,” he said. “You click a button and there is the answer.”

If the chatbot does not understand the question, the user can find themselves looped back to the beginning of the process. Mr Johnstone is using AI to make the conversation flow more smoothly.

“Our new AI chatbot service addresses the modern consumer’s need for instant information, and caters to their diminished attention spans,” Mr Johnstone said. “Designed to think, interact and respond like a human, SJD World’s AI chatbots are set to change how Bermuda-based businesses interact with their audiences online. These virtual assistants not only answer frequently asked questions, but also learn and adapt over time, providing increasingly personalised and efficient support.”

SJD World’s AI chatbots are purely text-based, and can be programmed to reach out to a human when the client’s question cannot easily be answered.

To operate the service, SJD World has partnered with a Polish-based firm called Text.

“The overseas team builds and develops the AI and we design how the bot thinks,” Mr Johnstone said. “We feed it information specific to the company.”

The SJD World staff’s biggest challenge has been learning to use the software needed to create the AI chatbots.

“Every new software has a learning curve,” Mr Johnstone said. “We had to dive deep.”

The AI chatbot model’s cost depends on what the client wants it to do, and how many hours it takes to develop. There is a monthly fee that must be paid to AI firm Text, and also maintenance fees for SJD World.

“We can have a basic bot up and ready to go in just over a month,” Mr Johnstone said. “Once it is up we monitor it for another month to see how people interact with it. We give it further training based on what people say and do with it.”

He decided to add AI chatbots to his offerings after doing well with the website development and maintenance side of his business.

One of his first AI chatbot clients was the electric car hire company Rugged Rentals.

“It has had a positive impact on business for them,” he said. “Users are able to get all their questions answered instantly, which is especially beneficial for a small team that is busy with day-to-day operations and in-person customer interactions. Sometimes they cannot frequently monitor online channels or social media to answer questions.”

He thought the possibilities of AI chatbots in web development were boundless.

“We have been developing websites now for 20 years and I always say designing websites is like building a house, on a barge, in the middle of the sea, and the weather keeps changing,” he said. “AI is a very new field, but the evolution of it from when it first began to today is remarkable. Plus, it will only get better with more time and testing. As technology grows, our AI chatbot will be able to grow and advance with it.”

The AI world is always swiftly evolving, but Mr Johnstone said popular AI apps such as ChatGPT or DeepSeek usually do not know much at all about a small firm in Bermuda, whereas the AI chatbot service has everything relevant about the company crammed into it.