Technological advances in generative artificial intelligence (GAI) have increased the relevance of pedagogical conversational agents (PCAs) like chatbots to support students. Despite their potential for learning as a service, PCAs are rarely used by educational institutions. They often neglect the benefits of group learning, like collaborative problem-solving, and insufficiently address learners’ motivational challenges in digital environments. To tackle these issues, we designed and evaluated a gamified PCA for information systems (IS) education with collaborative and competitive group learning capabilities. We investigated the effects of collaborative and competitive elements in PCA design using a 2x2 experiment (n = 120). Our findings show that collaborative game elements foster learners’ motivation and highlight the PCA’s role as a group learning moderator. This study contributes new knowledge on GAI in IS education, meaningful gamification in the PCA context, and computer-supported collaborative learning.