Home Depot and Lowe’s share a common goal for their AI assistants, but their strategies diverge

CX Dive spoke with the two retailers to understand how their AI assistants are helping shoppers navigate the tricky home improvement category.

By Bryan Wassel • Oct. 6, 2026

Gap unveils AI-assisted shopping, three decades after its first website

Starting Monday, customers can get recommendations from the Alta Daily and Daydream platforms. Banana Republic and Old Navy are also launching conversational shopping agents.

By Daphne Howland • Oct. 5, 2026

Explore the Trendline➔

Agentic AI

In this Trendline, CX Dive explores agentic AI case studies and strategies for successful implementation.

By CX Dive staff

Your AI strategy is only as strong as your CRM foundation

Agentic AI can only deliver trustworthy action when data, business context and workflows are properly connected.

Oct. 5, 2026

The next frontier in enterprise support: Knowledge that knows where it’s needed

What if your knowledge didn't wait to be searched?

Oct. 5, 2026

Consumers favor AI shopping assistants from brands they already use and trust

Companies should be wary of leveraging brand trust when considering the rollout of an AI shopping assistant.

By Matt Vartabedian • Oct. 2, 2026

Customers say AI has made their service experience worse

Customers have two big complaints from their AI interactions: they can’t reach a person when they need to and they have to repeat themselves, an Alchemer survey found.

By Matt Vartabedian • Oct. 2, 2026

How Schnucks brought its AI shopping assistant to life

The Midwestern grocer wanted to help its shoppers solve the eternal question of “what’s for dinner?” But first, it had to clean up its data.

By Jeff Wells • Oct. 1, 2026

Why pet insurer Pumpkin leaves customer warm calls to its AI agent

With its voice AI Poppy, the company is achieving a higher rate of customers transferring to a licensed human agent, higher sales conversion rates and improving NPS and CSAT interaction scores.

By Matt Vartabedian • Updated Oct. 2, 2026

Where do associates fit in an AI world?

Customers are arriving at stores more educated than ever, but associates still need to support or build on what those shoppers learned from AI, experts say.

By Bryan Wassel • Sept. 29, 2026

How one BPO is positioning for an AI future

As AI automates more customer service interactions, BPOs like TaskUs are figuring out where people will remain in the loop.

By Matt Vartabedian • Sept. 28, 2026

Consumer AI use a boon for the holidays as AI traffic doubles

Consumers using AI engage with brands’ offers at a higher rate than non-AI traffic and generate more revenue per visit, a survey from Adobe found.

By Matt Vartabedian • Sept. 28, 2026

When adopting agentic CX, don’t forget about your customer

The AI that wins isn't the flashiest pilot — it's the one built to last for customers.

Sept. 28, 2026

As consumers use AI for discovery, brands risk losing their relationship to the customer

Brands spent decades building direct customer relationships. Now, as consumers increasingly use AI tools for product recommendations, they are contending with a new reality.

By Matt Vartabedian • Sept. 25, 2026

Shoppers burned by bad AI recommendations

As more consumers turn to AI to suggest purchases, some regret following the technology’s advice, a new survey finds.

By Tatiana Walk-Morris • Sept. 24, 2026

Consumers trust AI to advise, but don’t consent to it purchasing for them

It’s fashionable to use AI to find deals, but consumers won’t delegate purchase decisions, an ACI Worldwide survey found.

By Matt Vartabedian • Sept. 21, 2026

Holiday shoppers have low trust in AI — except for certain tasks

The share of those who say AI will make holiday shopping easier is down year over year, but most shoppers trust it with shipping updates or product research, a Sinch survey found.

By Bryan Wassel • Sept. 21, 2026

How one mortgage lender deployed voice AI agents to improve borrowers’ experience

Mutual of Omaha Mortgage is using voice AI agents so that their loan officers can spend more time on the phone with borrowers.

By Matt Vartabedian • Updated Sept. 23, 2026

Target introduces AI-powered photo search, review features

The retailer is accelerating its AI capabilities to boost personalization and product discovery.

By Tatiana Walk-Morris • Sept. 15, 2026

Teens start to trust AI recommendations more than friends, parents

There's a generational shift among consumers as they bring AI into their purchasing process, according to a Mastercard report.

By Tatiana Walk-Morris • Sept. 15, 2026

Reliance on AI tools in decision-making can lead to risky CX business

AI assistance is only as good as the data it’s grounded on; decisions based on any single data point or disjointed systems can create unintended friction points.

By Matt Vartabedian • Sept. 14, 2026

Are AI-driven customer service cuts here to stay? Gartner predicts rehiring

Between AI tools that fail to deliver and leaders miscalculating the cost dynamics of AI, companies are being set up for whiplash and will likely need to rehire some of the staff they laid off.

By Kristen Doerer • Sept. 11, 2026

CX workforce budgets take a hit as organizations increase AI spending

However, organizations shouldn’t deploy AI to the detriment of the human agents, Gartner says. The two need to work in tandem.

By Matt Vartabedian • Sept. 10, 2026

Chewy’s beta AI assistant is already solving common customer issues, CEO says

Consumer-facing AI tools include Cai, a customer service chat assistant, and Callie, a voice AI that helps Chewy Vet Care locations confirm appointments.

By Bryan Wassel • Sept. 9, 2026

When websites aren’t in synch with AI assistants, trouble follows

Repercussions range from customers switching brands to giving up on the purchase altogether, a Contentsquare survey found.

By Bryan Wassel • Sept. 9, 2026

How AI virtual agents are changing the resolution standard in the contact center

AI virtual agents can now resolve issues end-to-end in the contact center — not just deflect them. Here's what resolution-first AI can mean for CX leaders.

Sept. 8, 2026