Introduction
The collaboration between Ada Mall and Sirma began in 2021 with the implementation of Ada Mall’s innovative loyalty program, enabled by Sirma’s technology. The next step was the introduction of a customer intelligence and monetization platform that seamlessly connected the loyalty program with the retailer’s digital channels, creating an overall cohesive and engaging customer experience. According to a recent article by Retail SEE Group, with nearly 50,000 members in 2024, the loyalty program accounted for 12% of the mall’s total turnover (excluding services and gastronomy). Encouraged by this success and in close partnership with Sirma, in 2024, Ada Mall embarked on a new chapter—an AI-driven transformation of its shopping journey, powered by Sirma’s Salexor platform. The goal: to deliver a more personalized and data-driven customer experience.
About ADA MALL
Ada Mall, a part of GTC Group, is a vibrant and modern shopping center in Belgrade, Serbia, which opened in 2019. The center is home to over 100 shops, including international brands (Nike, Starbucks, Body Shop, H&M, KFC, etc.), local boutiques, a supermarket, a multiplex CineStar cinema, a public library, and cafés. In its six years of existence, the mall has become a leading attraction in the region. It offers a unique blend of retail, entertainment, and lifestyle experiences that attract both locals and tourists. It continues to evolve, embracing digital innovation and customer-centric services that reinforce its position as a leading retail and entertainment hub in Serbia and the Balkans.
Photo credit: Ada Mall
The Opportunity
Ada Mall recognized the imperative to move beyond traditional customer engagement methods in the increasingly competitive retail environment. The challenge was to not only understand individual customer behaviours and needs in real time but also convert this understanding into actionable insights that would drive sales, foster loyalty, and enhance the mall’s overall profitability. Thus, the opportunity to empower marketing, sales and customer support teams with custom state-of-the-art AI-driven tools that would help monetize website traffic and seamlessly integrate with the loyalty program offered an exciting development perspective.
Why Ada Mall Chose Sirma
Building on a strong four-year collaboration, Ada Mall entrusted Sirma with its next strategic step – an AI transformation journey powered by Salexor. The advanced AI solution sparked interest with its potential to convert anonymous traffic into leads, automate marketing communications, and intelligently service customers 24/7 through an AI-powered chatbot, thereby achieving more responsive engagement across every touchpoint of the customer journey. The potential to seamlessly integrate the new solution with the technology behind the loyalty program further motivated the choice.
The Solution
As a result of Sirma’s consulting and technology services, Ada Mall embarked on a pioneering journey, integrating Salexor’s state-of-the-art AI tools into its operational framework, particularly within its loyalty program and customer engagement strategies. Beyond technology, Sirma also provided vital recommendations to center the project around a unified RevOps model (uniting people, processes and technology) to achieve maximum value. As a recent article by Alex Linchev, Shopping Center General Manager at GTC S.A, highlights, “this central orchestration connects the dots between analytics, automation, and customer delight.”
Central to Ada Mall’s innovative approach became the following key AI tools: custom-built AI-powered agentic assistant, including a mall-specific AI assistant functionality, and AI-driven lead generation platform.
The AI-powered agentic assistant provides instant, personalized support 24/7, handling various customer inquiries, from general questions to tailored product or service suggestions. It not only helps address frequent customer questions but also learns and adapts to individual customer needs. It acts as a virtual concierge, significantly enhancing the customer journey. It is complemented by a mall-specific AI assistant functionality suited to the complex ecosystem of the mall which enables interactive navigation (locating stores, restrooms, parking, facilities, etc.), live promotions and event updates (e.g., cinema programs), multilingual support for tourists, customer feedback and lost & found reports, emergency instructions, safety assistance, and assistance regarding the loyalty program.
The AI-driven lead generation platform is another key aspect of the innovation. It helps analyze anonymous website traffic in real time by identifying visitors’ origins and interests, assessing their intent, satisfaction level, and purchase readiness, and assigning dynamic scores based on behavior. This enables the platform to send personalized, targeted advertisements and convert user traffic into leads and loyal customers.
The AI solutions enable customer engagement & loyalty program enhancements by personalized loyalty rewards and curated offers based on user behavior, extending to exclusive tenant promotions. The AI Assistant collects real-time data and feedback explicitly, recognizes users, builds their engagement score, approaches highly engaged users with special offers, collects leads, converts them into customers and loyalty program members, and communicates the perks of membership through automated offers.
Additionally, the new tools feature a dedicated email marketing platform that tracks essential performance indicators like open rates, click-through rates, bounce rates, and unsubscribe rates. This allows the shopping centre’s internal marketing team to monitor how many recipients viewed the email, identify which sections attracted the most clicks, measure how long users interacted with specific links, and conduct A/B testing to refine subject lines, content, and delivery timing.
Based on Sirma’s recommendations, Ada Mall applies a unified RevOps Model (processes, platforms, people) to automate customer journeys for maximum engagement. It leverages Agentic AI, functional calls, and various communication channels (emails, pop-ups, messengers, push notifications, etc.), all seamlessly integrated with existing and new systems. The goal is to operate efficiently, gather comprehensive analytics, and provide a centralized view with predictive insights into customer trends. Finally, Ada Mall has assembled a dedicated, experienced team to support tenants in integrating with this new orchestration. Tenants can leverage the platform for their marketing activities free of charge, enabling direct communication with their loyal clientele and improving their marketing ROI.
The Results
The implementation of Ada Mall’s AI-powered RevOps model and integrated AI tools has delivered tangible, transformative results, including a significant conversion rate boost and increase in economic benefits.
According to Bogomil Iliev, VP Retail Services at Sirma,
the platform’s ability to provide actionable solutions has dramatically improved conversion rates, with the potential to reach 30% and beyond, converting user traffic into leads and sales.
Beyond that, Alex Linchev Ada Mall General Manager at GTC S. A. highlights:
up to three years after implementing the AI solutions, based on ongoing trends the mall projects an increase in loyalty purchases per active cardholder by more than 12%, showcasing the tangible economic benefits of this digital transformation.
The new AI-powered solutions further resulted in deeper customer insights. The real-time AI analytics provided an unparalleled understanding of each visitor’s unique needs, intent, and purchase readiness, enabling more responsive and innovative engagement. They also enhanced operational efficiency across marketing, sales and customer support by automating customer journeys and streamlining communication channels. Further, they created superior customer and tenant experience via personalized engagement, ease of access to information, and seamless support across all touchpoints. Last but not least, they attained enhanced marketing ROI by enabling personalized, targeted advertisements and empowering tenants with free marketing tools.
Alex Linchev, Ada Mall General Manager at GTC S. A. shared:
To pull all this off, Ada Mall partnered with Sirma Group, one of Southeast Europe’s most respected technology companies. Publicly listed and boasting over 800 professionals worldwide, Sirma brings deep AI expertise to the table. With this collaboration, Ada Mall isn’t just playing catch-up with global trends—it’s leading them.
Conclusion
Ada Mall is a leading example of modern retail innovation. It is committed to delivering a comprehensive, all-in-one solution that elevates every touchpoint of the customer’s journey. From initial marketing outreach to seamless sales processes and responsive customer support, Ada Mall’s digital operations have been transformed into a high-performance, profit-driving AI engine. This strategic focus aims to provide a personalized, seamless, and insightful experience for all visitors and tenants.
Sirma played a pivotal role in Ada Mall’s transformation by contributing to it with both deep methodological expertise and advanced technological capabilities. Through a structured, data-driven implementation process and the integration of its custom AI solutions, Sirma ensured that the project was aligned with Ada Mall’s strategic goals — maximizing impact, scalability, and long-term value.
