DLR Leisure, based in the Republic of Ireland, has been on a significant transformation process over recent years. Lead by CEO Niall Cull, their customer service experience and processes have been revolutionised at every step of the process from booking and joining, to in-centre interactions across multiple touchpoints. In late 2025, that journey reached a major milestone with the launch of Ali, their first AI employee.
Working in partnership with HireBOB, DLR Leisure successfully introduced AI into their organisation in a way that enhanced service levels, reduced pressure on staff, and delivered a 24/7, high-quality customer experience from day one.
The transformation began with the implementation of Gladstone as DLR Leisure’s CRM, improving how customers booked activities and joined centres. But for CEO Niall Cull, this was just the first step in a much bigger plan.
“We didn’t want to improve one part of the journey, we wanted to improve all of it.
Since then, DLR has systematically refreshed their full customer experience, including:
Post-COVID, like many leisure operators, DLR found recruitment increasingly challenging, finding it difficult to find the staff needed to fill positions. Niall knew that his team needed additional support, but found it hard to attain this through the recruitment market. Rather than seeing AI as a replacement for people, Niall and his team saw it as a way to support staff, scale service, and maintain consistency during busy periods.
“We wanted AI to ease the pressure on our people, so they could focus on what matters most, face-to-face experiences and conversations in the centre.”
After exploring the AI landscape and speaking with multiple providers, DLR began conversations with HireBOB in February 2023 to scope out how AI could support their business. After a process of talking to multiple AI specialists, and following a detailed research period, HireBOB was selected to be DLR’s partner of choice, largely due to:
Before launching Ali, DLR took a deliberate and thoughtful approach. They focused on building the right foundations first, ensuring systems, processes, and people were ready for meaningful change.
A critical success factor was involving the entire team in the planning and preparation process.
“We wanted everyone to understand that AI was there to support them, not replace them.”
The team even named their new AI colleague Ali, short for ‘A Leisure Instructor’. From the start, Ali was treated not as a piece of technology, but as a real member of the team.
.png)
CEO
Ali was launched across web chat and email, just ahead of Christmas 2025 and the busy January 2026 period, a true stress test for any customer service operation.
Within the first four weeks, Ali handled over 400 customer conversations.
“Very quickly we recognised the value Ali was delivering. There’s no way our team could have handled that volume to the same standard, most notably recognising the number of enquiries that we were receiving out of normal staffing hours, which ordinarily would have sat in an inbox for several hours, now these were being responded to instantly 24/7”.
Just weeks after launch, DLR Leisure saw clear, measurable benefits:
“Previously our reception team were rushing from one interaction to the next, balancing a face to face interaction at the reception counter, with the phone ringing next to them, this inevitably lead to rushed interactions and missed opportunities. Ali has changed that, reducing phone calls, since our customers know now that they can get an instant response online. The result is that the customer gets the information they need quicker, and our reception team have longer to spend, and a better of quality interaction with the people in front of them face to face.”
“We were delighted by the setup process from day 1, it was simple and efficient. The HireBOB team held our hand throughout. They took on the heavy lifting, and the system just worked. It was surprisingly easy.”
“The knowledge base was added quickly, integration was smooth, and Ali was ready to work in a short timeframe, without disruption to daily operations.”
“I would like to pay tribute to the DLR Leisure senior management team for their hard work and commitment on this exciting project and improvement within our company.”
“From procurement to launch and beyond, the relationship with HireBOB has been a highlight for the DLR team.”
“From the outset, the experience and assistance provided by the HireBOB team has been a comforting, hand-holding, guiding experience. They’ve been brilliant and continue to be brilliant as we now move to a stage of fine-tune for optimal customer experience.”
CEO
