Observed Signal · Jun 4, 2026 · Earnings Report · Source: Retail Dive · Impact: 4/5 · Sentiment: Positive
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.
Major U.S. retailers signalled strategic AI investments and retail‑media positioning during earnings calls and announced customer-facing AI products and vendor partnerships (OpenAI, Google, Adobe). This affects retail media, personalization, first‑party data strategies, and ad‑tech opportunities.
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Key Takeaways & Evidence Grounding
- Best Buy reported $8.9 billion in revenue and 2% comparable sales growth in the quarter.
- Best Buy cited partnerships with OpenAI and Google and described itself as a retail media, advertising and technology company.
- Gap is deploying AI across merchandising workflows and launched customer-facing shopping integrations with Google’s Gemini and Inspectorio’s Paramo.
- Gap reported a 2% increase in overall comparable sales, its ninth consecutive quarter of increases.
- Dick’s Sporting Goods unveiled an agentic AI shopping adviser called Coach by Dick’s, built with Adobe Brand Concierge and set to roll out in June.
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Retailers Invest in AI for Supply Chain and Shopping
Major retailers, including Gap, Dollar General, Ulta Beauty, and Kohl's, are accelerating AI adoption across supply chain, customer experience, and internal operations, as revealed in their Q2 earnings calls. Ulta's CEO Kecia Steelman highlighted early AI adoption for productivity and scaling opportunities, with new CTO Kelly Garcia advancing tech initiatives. Gap's capital expenditure for technology and supply chain is set at $650 million. Ulta uses AI for sourcing, inventory optimization, and AI-powered search and discovery, including its on-site shopping agent Ulta AI. Kohl's CEO Michael Bender reported early positive results from its AI shopping assistant, improving conversion and revenue per visit. Dollar General's CEO Todd Vasos mentioned building agentic operating systems for enterprise workflows, with net sales up 5.2% to $11.3 billion. Bain partner Aaron Cheris notes that most retailers are applying AI to specific areas rather than pursuing full AI transformation, with examples like Home Depot's Magic Apron and Walmart's Sparky.
Retailers Integrate AI Shopping with Own Data and Checkout
Retailers and major AI companies are integrating AI-driven discovery with merchant product data and checkout systems to keep transactions and customer data within retailer ecosystems. Adobe reports substantial increases in AI-referred traffic and conversion rates in 2026, while Google launched Universal Cart and a Universal Commerce Protocol (UCP) to enable checkout features across Search and Gemini. OpenAI’s Agentic Commerce Protocol and structured product feeds let merchants supply product and checkout data to AI shopping services while remaining merchant of record. Retailers including Walmart, Ulta Beauty, Wayfair, Nike, Sephora and Target are working with AI services to enable shoppable experiences and retain first‑party customer insights. New measurement tools from Google and Adobe help merchants assess AI visibility and identify missing product attributes.
Retailers Embrace AI, Set Boundaries
At the CommerceNext Growth Summit in New York City, retail and brand executives described how they are deploying AI across customer-facing and internal operations — while clearly defining use-cases they won’t automate. Speakers from Tecovas, Ulta, Pandora, JD Finish Line, Kendra Scott and Authentic Brands Group described implementations such as in-store associate assistants, AI-driven product information tools, customer-service agents that escalate to humans, propensity modeling to route inquiries, and brand-specific knowledge bases. Executives emphasized human-in-the-loop controls for customer interactions, refused AI-driven model/on-skin imagery for product photography, and highlighted how first‑party customer data and machine learning are being used to personalize experiences and surface insights from call-center data.
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