Macy’s launches AI concierge

Macy’s has launched “Ask Macy’s,” an artificial intelligence shopping concierge on its website and app, built with Google Cloud and rolled out in March. (googlecloudpresscorner.com) The tool lets shoppers type or speak natural-language requests instead of clicking through menus, and Macy’s says it can guide customers across more than 2.5 million stock-keeping units in its catalog. (googlecloudpresscorner.com) Google Cloud said Macy’s built the system in four weeks using Gemini Enterprise for Customer Experience, Vertex AI Search, BigQuery and the retailer’s own product and customer data. (googlecloudpresscorner.com) A shopping concierge is a chatbot tuned for commerce: it tries to translate vague prompts like “a spring wedding guest dress under $200” into searchable product attributes, then narrow the results. Google pitches that model as “agentic commerce,” which combines search, recommendations and service in one interface. (cloud.google.com) That setup depends less on flashy conversation than on clean retail data. Product titles, sizes, colors, prices, inventory signals and editorial content all have to be structured so the system can match a shopper’s request to actual items for sale. (cloud.google.com) Macy’s has been working on that plumbing already. In its 2024 annual report, the company said it had optimized digital site navigation and search engine capabilities, part of a broader push to improve online conversion. (s202.q4cdn.com) The retailer is making that push while reshaping the rest of the business. Macy’s said in its 2024 annual report that it closed 64 of about 150 planned non-go-forward Macy’s stores during the year, while its fiscal 2025 results highlighted digital strength and positive comparable sales growth. (s202.q4cdn.com) (businesswire.com) Google and Macy’s are also attaching early performance claims to the launch. Industry publication InfotechLead reported that customers using Ask Macy’s generated about 4.75 times higher revenue per visit during beta testing, though neither company disclosed the sample size or test design in the public materials reviewed here. (infotechlead.com) For department stores, the bet is that shoppers who do not know the right brand, keyword or category will still buy if the site can behave more like a sales associate. Macy’s is now trying to make that conversation part of the front door to its digital business. (googlecloudpresscorner.com)