Kroger has announced plans to deploy Google’s Gemini Enterprise platform to enhance its customer experience. The rollout aims to simplify how customers plan meals and shop for groceries through new AI-powered assistants.
Kroger Enters New Digital Era with Google Cloud’s Gemini Platform
Kroger is expanding its partnership with Google Cloud to roll out a new AI-powered personal shopping assistant. The technology will be deployed across Kroger’s stores and digital platforms nationwide.
Kroger customers will find grocery planning easier than before through the AI platform’s integrated Meal assistant and Shopping assistant that delivers a faster shopping experience, while maintaining customer preferences.
In addition, Kroger plans to roll out Google Cloud’s Customer Experience Agent Studio. The platform will analyze customer interactions, help resolve issues more quickly, and support store associates across Kroger’s nationwide footprint.
”We know our customers want an experience that is seamless and adapts to the context of their day, and the Shopping assistant is one more way we will transform how our customers will engage with us,” said Yael Cosset, executive vice president and chief digital officer for Kroger.
Features of the Shopping Assistant
The new AI-powered assistant builds on Kroger’s nearly 150-year history in the grocery business. The tool is designed to reduce the time spent on complex, multi-step tasks such as pickup and delivery orders.
One feature, known as agentic integration, allows the assistant to complete multi-step tasks from a single prompt. These include exploring meal ideas, building complex carts for major occasions, reordering past purchases, or comparing product details.
Another important feature of the Shopping assistant is that it converts meal-related requests of Kroger customers into a guided recipe. The ingredient list can be added to shopping carts with a single click.
Cosset added, “A customer planning a week of dinners, seeking recipe inspiration, or jumping into a new food regimen, will be able to ask our integrated assistant to create a shopping list based on their immediate needs, their budget, and their family’s unique preferences.”
Kroger’s latest Shopping assistant further offers recommendations based on the retail giant’s proprietary data asset. The recommendations are based on Kroger’s product assortment, pricing, and availability data to deliver more relevant suggestions.
Describing further, Cosset emphasized that the grocery retail chain is streamlining every aspect of the shopping experience. This includes building a basket and getting relevant offers and savings, along with scheduling a faster delivery.
“We are making grocery shopping simpler and more personal, creating more time for real connections around foods families love,” Cosset added.
“Kroger is pioneering the future of commerce by embracing true generative and agentic AI at the heart of their customer journey,” said Darshan Kantak, vice president of product for applied AI at Google Cloud. “With Gemini Enterprise for Commerce, Kroger will be setting a new standard for grocery, ensuring its agent becomes a comprehensive digital concierge across every customer touchpoint.”
About the Kroger Co. and Google Cloud
Kroger Co. delivers its grocery solutions to more than 11 million customers daily at its retail food stores and via e-commerce shopping. Its network of 400,000 plus associates make this possible and help the retail giant stay on the path of its Purpose: To Feed the Human Spirit. Kroger Co. also supports #ZeroHungerZeroWaste by serving communities across the country.
Google Cloud offers a range of AI, data, infrastructure, security, collaboration, and developer tools. Its integrated and optimized AI stack, custom-built chips, AI-powered applications, and other offerings support the transformation of organizations. The platform has customers in over 200 countries and territories as of now.
The expanded partnership underscores Kroger’s push to use AI to improve personalization, efficiency, and the overall customer experience nationwide.
