They have names, faces and email addresses, but the five new colleagues at Denmark's Royal Unibrew only exist in the virtual realm, which the brewer hails as a milestone to unleash the full potential of its staff.

"What we as humans are good at is our creativity, our empathy, our knowledge of our customers," marketing director Michala Svane told AFP.

Svane explained that working together with their digital colleagues, their human employees "get help for more routine-based work and finding information".

With the help of Danish company Manifold AI, she has enriched her team with five AI "colleagues": brand specialist KondiKai, market analyst Athena, Prometheus, who gathers all sales data, Moller, a sommelier specialising in pairing food and beer, and trade specialist Ella.

Initially, the assistants operated without names, but the five "colleagues" now all have a backstory, can swap outfits, and........

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