Observed Signal · Jul 23, 2026 · Product Launch · Source: Retail Dive · Impact: 3/5 · Sentiment: Positive
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.
Retail adoption of LLM-powered conversational assistants signals growing use of generative AI to improve e-commerce discovery and personalization; multiple major retailers and cloud providers are involved, raising implications for commerce UX and retail competition.
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Key Takeaways & Evidence Grounding
- Ask Mike quietly launched in May and was formally announced July 21, 2026.
- Ask Mike has handled about 75,000 conversations since rollout.
- Michaels reports 27% of Ask Mike interactions led to a product click or add-to-cart, more than double traditional site search conversion.
- Ask Mike was built with Google Cloud’s Gemini Enterprise for Customer Experience.
- The tool moved from concept to production in roughly six weeks, enabled by a modern cloud foundation and an AI-ready product catalog.
Connected Companies & Entities
5 Entities mapped“The tool was first released in May and was created with Google Cloud’s Gemini Enterprise for Customer Experience....”
“While Ulta Beauty and Macy’s have also tapped Google’s Gemini platform for their respective AI assistants, Lowe’s teamed up with OpenAI to c...”
“While Ulta Beauty and Macy’s have also tapped Google’s Gemini platform for their respective AI assistants, Lowe’s teamed up with OpenAI to c...”
“This website is owned and operated by Informa TechTarget, a global network that informs, influences and connects the world’s technology buye...”
Ontology Mapping & Concepts
Related Market Signals & Shifts
Recent verified developments and strategic activity across this market segment.
Macy’s launches Ask Macy’s AI shopping assistant
Macy’s has deployed an AI-powered shopping assistant called Ask Macy’s on its ecommerce site after roughly six months of development and a rapid beta. The project was re-based onto Google’s Gemini Enterprise for Customer Experience in collaboration with Google Cloud. During beta tests Ask Macy’s drove 4.75× higher revenue per visit among users (per Google Cloud). The assistant scans Macy’s full product catalogue, asks follow-up preference questions, and includes a virtual try-on that can superimpose items onto uploaded photos. The initial joint project began in early February 2026; a beta launched to test shoppers and employees four weeks later, with staged rollout to half site traffic before full release.
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.
Peec AI Launches AI Shopping Analytics
Peec AI launched AI Shopping Analytics, a SKU-level analytics product that gives e-commerce brands visibility into how AI assistants (e.g., ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Copilot, Amazon) recommend their catalogs. The tool surfaces product visibility, win rate, ranking position, where AI directs buyers (brand site, marketplace, retailer), comparison attributes AI uses, prices quoted by assistants versus catalog prices, and the shopping queries/prompts behind recommendations. The release is positioned amid industry moves toward agentic commerce and the Universal Commerce Protocol (Shopify & Google). Peec AI reported surpassing $10M ARR in May 2026, has over 2,500 customers including Attio, Squarespace, TUI and Hugo Boss, and opened its first US office in New York. AI Shopping Analytics is available now; Peec AI plans to add “Shopping Actions,” AI-generated prompt setup, and API and MCP access in the coming weeks.
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