Observed Signal · May 28, 2026 · Product Launch · Source: Retail Dive · Impact: 2/5 · Sentiment: Positive
Dick’s Sporting Goods launches AI adviser
Dick’s Sporting Goods announced Coach by Dick’s, an agentic AI-powered shopping adviser that will roll out inside the retailer’s mobile app in June 2026. The tool provides product recommendations and athletic training guidance tailored to a shopper’s sport, goals, behaviors and proficiency level. Dick’s said it built Coach using Adobe Brand Concierge together with the retailer’s own content and expertise. The launch aligns with the company’s prior stated focus on strengthening its mobile and e-commerce capabilities and follows a strong quarter in which net sales and comparable sales rose 6% year over year.
A major U.S. retailer deploying an agentic AI adviser in its mobile app signals broader retailer adoption of conversational AI for personalization and customer engagement, but it is not a platform-level policy or technical shift that would rapidly reshape the adtech ecosystem.
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Key Takeaways & Evidence Grounding
- Dick’s Sporting Goods introduced an agentic AI adviser called Coach by Dick’s.
- The company plans to add Coach within its mobile app in June 2026 and expand capabilities over time.
- Coach provides product recommendations and athletic training advice based on customers’ goals, behaviors and proficiency level.
- Dick’s built the tool using Adobe Brand Concierge plus the retailer’s own content and expertise.
- In Q1 2026 Dick’s reported net sales and comps rose 6% year over year and raised its full-year comparable-sales guidance for the Dick’s division to 2.5%–4%.
Connected Companies & Entities
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Related Market Signals & Shifts
Recent verified developments and strategic activity across this market segment.
Retailers Adopt AI for Productivity and Personalization
Best Buy, Gap and Dick’s Sporting Goods highlighted increasing investments in AI during their Q1 earnings calls, describing uses from internal productivity to customer-facing shopping assistants. Best Buy’s incoming CEO Jason Bonfig said the company is positioning itself as a retail media, advertising and technology company and highlighted partnerships with OpenAI and Google; Best Buy reported $8.9 billion in revenue and 2% comparable‑sales growth for the quarter. Gap reported AI pilots with Google’s Gemini and Inspectorio’s Paramo to improve product discovery, design and allocation, and cited a 2% increase in comparable sales. Dick’s unveiled an agentic AI adviser, “Coach by Dick’s,” developed with Adobe Brand Concierge and scheduled to roll out in June. The article also cites industry research forecasting rising AI tech spend and the potential growth of agentic commerce through 2030.
Michaels launches Ask Mike AI shopping assistant
Michaels quietly launched Ask Mike to customers in May and formally announced the customer-facing AI shopping assistant on July 21, 2026. Built with Google Cloud’s Gemini Enterprise for Customer Experience, Ask Mike moved from concept to production in roughly six weeks, enabled by a modern cloud foundation and an AI-ready product catalog. Live on desktop, mobile web and iOS/Android apps, the assistant has handled about 75,000 conversations; Michaels reports 27% of interactions lead to a product click or add-to-cart and that conversion is more than double traditional site search. More than 60% of interactions focused on product discovery. Michaels plans future enhancements such as AI-generated product overviews and contextual prompts, and said it did not disclose baseline conversion rates, group sizes, or AOVs.
Kohl's launches AI shopping assistant
Kohl’s has launched an AI shopping assistant for its online site and mobile app to improve product discovery and customer support. The assistant aggregates deals, offers personalized product recommendations, compares items, performs searches using customers’ uploaded images, answers promotion queries, tracks online orders, connects to customer service, and supports buy-online-pick-up-in-store workflows. The tool builds on Kohl’s April Gift Finder and the company is leveraging Google infrastructure (including Google Cloud’s Gemini Enterprise for Customer Experience) to power conversational product discovery. The move follows similar AI assistant rollouts by other major retailers such as Macy’s, Michaels and Lowe’s. Kohl’s recent Q1 results showed a 1.7% dip in net sales and a $14 million net loss for the quarter.
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