Meet Alison, our Motorhome AI who works for you around the clock
Alison is an AI assistant we built ourselves, here at Motorhome Pig. We're rather proud of her. Here's exactly who she is, what she does, and how she helps our team serve you better.
Gary Lewis Cheetham, our technical director, on who Alison really is.
- Alison is an AI assistant we built in-house, not an off-the-shelf chatbot.
- She answers every email, text, WhatsApp and missed call, in seconds, 24/7.
- She runs on Claude (the AI by Anthropic), built on years of our own expertise and the real questions customers ask.
- A human is always behind her: every message is seen by our team, and a real person follows up.
- Don't want to talk to an AI? Tell us and we'll switch her off for you, so you'll always reach a human.
Meet Alison, in her own words
Here are a few examples of the kind of message Alison might send, written exactly the way she really talks: warm, straightforward, and never pushy.
A new enquiry comes in
EmailWe missed your call
Text messageA friendly nudge after it went quiet
EmailWorking a seller's listing for them
WhatsAppLet's be straight about the AI thing
We know how a lot of people feel about AI right now. A recent survey found that 60% of people say "AI" in a company's marketing is a turnoff, not a feature, and three in four reckon the internet feels less human than it did ten years ago. We get it. So we're not going to bury Alison in the small print or pretend she's something she isn't.
Alison is an AI. There, we said it on her own page, in big letters. We'd rather you heard it from us than felt tricked later.
But here's the thing: Alison isn't here to replace the humans you'd normally talk to. She's here so that nobody waits. A question at 11pm gets a proper answer at 11pm. A missed call gets a friendly text back in seconds. And then a real person picks it up from there.
Everyone who advertises a motorhome with us gets Alison working for them, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Never tired, never off sick, never too busy. For sellers, that's a world-class assistant handling your buyers around the clock. For buyers, it's a fast, genuinely helpful reply at any hour, with a human following up properly.
So here's our honest answer to all the AI fatigue: Alison is the start of the conversation, not the end of it. She makes sure you're never ignored, and a real person is never far behind.
So who, and what, is Alison?
Alison is an AI assistant we designed, built and trained ourselves, right here at Motorhome Pig. We named her Alison because, to us, she's part of the team, not a faceless "chat" button in the corner of the screen.
We didn't buy Alison off a shelf. Gary Lewis Cheetham, our technical director, and his dad have spent years in the motorhome trade, and Alison is built from all of it. We more or less frankensteined her together: years of the sales-training notes and guides we'd written down, plus the real stories and questions our customers actually bring us, answered the way we'd answer them ourselves.
She's no side project we set up and forgot, either. Alison is built and maintained in-house by our own technical director (software development is the day job), who's in tuning and improving her most days. We treat her like what she is: an AI employee, and a proper member of the team.
That's why she doesn't sound like the robot on a bank's website that loops you in circles and never quite gets it. She knows how Motorhome Pig works inside out: our fees, how viewings happen, what we can and can't do, so she can genuinely help you there and then.
She's so much her own thing now that, honestly, she sometimes surprises even us.
I more or less frankensteined her together from years of stuff we'd written down, and built her on the real stories real customers bring us. She's a reflection of us, really, and she does things that even surprise me.
If it helps, think of Alison a bit like Rosie the Robot from The Jetsons: part of the family, brilliant at her job, occasionally says something a bit daft, and always learning. She's one of us. She just happens to be made of code.
What Alison actually does
Alison answers every email, text message, WhatsApp and missed call that comes in, in seconds, day or night. No queue, no waiting for opening hours.
Every email
She replies to any enquiry that lands in her inbox, day or night, with the real details, not a canned auto-reply.
Every text message
She answers texts to our numbers in seconds, in short, friendly, plain English. No menus, no 'press 1'.
Every WhatsApp
She picks up WhatsApp messages, works out whether you're buying or selling, and makes sure the right person owns it.
Every missed call
She texts you straight back when we can't get to the phone, so you're never left wondering if anyone noticed.
Advertise with us and Alison works your listing around the clock. The moment a buyer asks a question, 7am, 11pm, Christmas Day, she replies, sorts the genuine interest from the time-wasters, and hands the serious buyers to the team. It's like having a tireless salesperson who only ever works for you, and very few places selling motorhomes can offer anything like it yet.
Got a question about a van? Alison will often answer it on the spot and save you the wait, and if it needs a human, she makes sure a real person follows up. You get a reply now, not 'sometime tomorrow'.
How Alison works, in plain English
No jargon, we promise. Here's what it means for you each time Alison helps:
1. She's powered by world-class AI
Alison runs on Claude, the AI built by Anthropic, one of the world's leading AI labs. That's why she understands what you actually mean rather than just matching keywords, and why she's ready to help any hour of the day.
2. She knows her stuff
Alison has the right, up-to-date details about the motorhome you're asking about right at her fingertips, so you get specific, accurate answers, never vague waffle and never anything made up.
3. A human is always watching
A real person on our team keeps an eye on what Alison's doing and steps in the moment something needs a human touch. And when Alison knows she's out of her depth, she puts her hand up and brings in a person rather than guessing. You're in good hands, never stuck in a loop with a machine.
4. She gets things done
Alison doesn't just chat. She can log a viewing request, put your offer to the seller, or find you a motorhome that fits better. And if the advert doesn't cover what you need to know, say the exact tyre tread or a specific measurement, she'll ask the owner directly (our sellers are a friendly, engaged bunch) and come back to you with the answer.
5. And some things she won't do, on purpose
She'll never value or price your motorhome, never make promises on a seller's behalf, and never pretend she's done something she hasn't. Those stay firmly with our team.
Why we built her
Because the worst thing in any sale is silence. People lose interest when they're left waiting, and humans have to sleep.
Motorhomes don't get bought and sold nine-to-five. Enquiries land late at night, at weekends, on bank holidays, exactly when a traditional dealer's phone rings out. Alison means nobody sits there wondering whether anyone got their message.
She also takes the routine weight off the team: the 'is it still available?', the 'sorry we missed you', the gentle nudges, so our people can spend their time on the conversations that genuinely need a human touch.
We think that makes the whole service better. Faster for you, and more human exactly where it counts.
The humans haven't gone anywhere
Alison works alongside our team, never instead of them. She makes good people faster; she doesn't replace them. They're still our biggest asset, and always will be.
Every message Alison sends is visible to a real person on our team. Anything that needs a human, an offer, a viewing, a complaint, or simply someone who'd rather talk to a person, she passes straight to someone who can deal with it.
We're an AI company now, sure. But ask anyone here and they'll tell you the same thing: the people are what make Motorhome Pig work. Alison just makes sure those people are never the bottleneck.
When Alison gets it wrong (because sometimes she does)
Alison is very good. She is not perfect. We'd rather tell you that here, plainly, than have you find out later and feel misled.
Now and then she'll misread a message, get the wrong end of the stick, or phrase something a bit oddly. Say, reading 'is this still for sale?' on a van that's just gone under offer and replying a shade too cheerfully. Every so often a human has to step in and put it right. It's the robot-in-the-family thing again: even the cleverest robots have their off days.
When it happens, it's never to mislead you. It's just a mistake, the same as any of us make. If Alison ever gets something wrong, tell us (reply to her, or call the team) and we'll sort it. And she learns: the things she trips over today are the things we teach her tomorrow. She's always getting better.
Just reply to Alison or call us on 07543 543 543. A human will pick it up, fix it, and make sure she gets it right next time.
Want to talk to the person who actually built her? Our technical director reads the Business Enquiries form himself, and genuinely likes hearing how she's doing, good or bad.
Where Alison's heading
We're improving Alison constantly: sharpening her knowledge, smoothing out the rough edges, and teaching her from every conversation that doesn't go quite right.
Over the coming months we'd like her to handle more of the fiddly little jobs that save you time, and get even quicker at spotting when something's beyond her so she hands you to a human sooner. But the rule never changes: she works alongside the team, she's always honest about what she can and can't do, and a human is always there behind her.
Alison today is the worst she'll ever be. Every week she gets a little sharper, and we'll keep being straight with you about what she can do.
Your data, plainly
Because we built Alison ourselves, we keep control of how your details are handled, rather than handing your enquiry to a third-party chatbot company. We mostly use them to help with your enquiry and get it to the right person, plus a bit of anonymised housekeeping to fix bugs and improve the site. We never sell your information, and we never use your conversations to train anyone else's AI.
Mainly used to help you
First and foremost, we use what you tell Alison to actually help, to answer you and pass things to the right person on the team.
And to keep the site running well
We also use it, anonymised where we can, to fix bugs, understand how people use the site, and improve our search. The usual behind-the-scenes housekeeping.
Never sold, never used to train other AI
We never sell your information, and we never feed your conversations into anyone else's AI to train it. The one thing that leaves us is a scrambled, one-way code of your name and contact details, sent to Google and Meta to check whether our ads worked, and only if you've accepted advertising cookies. They can't turn it back into you.
Yours to see or delete
Want to see what we hold, or have it deleted? Just ask, reply to any message or call us on 07543 543 543. We'll sort what we can (we do have to keep a few records for legal reasons, but we'll be straight with you about it).
Want the full detail? Read our privacy policy.
Not keen on talking to an AI? That's completely fine
If you'd rather only ever deal with a human, just say the word and we'll switch Alison off for you.
Tell us, reply to any message Alison sends, or call the team on 07543 543 543, and we'll take you off Alison's list entirely. From then on she'll never email or text you, and you'll only ever hear from a person. No awkwardness, no hard feelings, and Alison won't take it personally.
We built Alison to make life easier, not to force anyone to chat with a robot they'd rather not.
Prefer humans only? One message is all it takes, and Alison steps aside for good.
Questions people ask us about Alison
Is Alison a real person?
No. Alison is an AI assistant we built in-house at Motorhome Pig. She has a name and a personality and she writes like a person, but she's software, running on Claude, the AI made by Anthropic. We're upfront about that, which is exactly why this page exists.
Will I ever speak to a real human?
Yes. Alison sends the first reply so you're never left waiting, but every message she writes is seen by our team, and a real person follows up on the things that matter: enquiries, offers and viewing requests. And if you'd rather only ever deal with a human, just tell us and we'll switch her off for you.
Is Alison replacing your team?
No. Our people are our biggest asset. Alison handles the late-night enquiries and the routine bits so the team can spend their time where it really matters. She works alongside them, not instead of them.
How do I stop Alison from messaging me?
Just tell us, reply to any of her messages or call the team on 07543 543 543, and we'll block you from Alison so you only ever reach a human. No hard feelings.
What do you do with my data?
We mainly use your details to help with your enquiry and pass it to the right person, plus a bit of anonymised housekeeping to fix bugs and improve the site. We never sell your information, and we never use your conversations to train anyone else's AI. If you've accepted advertising cookies, a scrambled one-way code of your contact details goes to Google and Meta so we can tell whether our ads worked, nothing they can reverse. Want what we hold deleted? Just ask, and see our privacy policy for the full picture.
Can Alison get things wrong?
Yes, occasionally. She's very good but she isn't perfect: sometimes she misreads a message and a human has to step in. If she ever gets something wrong, tell us and we'll put it right. She learns from it and keeps getting better.
Say hello to Alison
Ask her anything about any motorhome on the site. She'll reply in seconds, and a human will follow up. Or skip the robot entirely and call the team.
Open 7 days a week · Every message Alison sends is seen by our team