January 13, 2026
Google Cloud Brings Agentic AI to the Front Lines of Retail and Service at NRF 2026
At NRF 2026, Google Cloud presented its most concrete view yet of where customer experience is heading. Across food service, home improvement, and enterprise retail, the company introduced a new generation of agentic AI tools designed to actively complete tasks on behalf of customers and employees.
The unifying theme behind these announcements was the launch of Gemini Enterprise for Customer Experience, an agentic platform intended to connect shopping, service, and operations through a single intelligence layer. Rather than treating discovery, checkout, and support as separate moments, Google Cloud’s AI agents are designed to be continuous participants across the entire customer journey.
Several high-profile brands, including Papa John’s and The Home Depot, showcased what this approach looks like in practice.
Papa John’s Brings AI Ordering into Every Channel
Papa John’s became the first restaurant brand to deploy Google Cloud’s new Food Ordering agent, part of Gemini Enterprise for CX. The system replaces fragmented ordering experiences with a unified voice and text interface that works across mobile apps, websites, phone calls, kiosks, and in-car systems.
The goal is speed and accuracy, particularly for repeat customers and complex orders. The agent can recognise loyalty members, prompt reorders based on previous behaviour, apply the best available deals automatically, and manage multi-person or group orders without human intervention. Instead of searching for promotions or navigating menus, customers can place orders conversationally and move straight to checkout.
The Home Depot Turns AI into a Project Partner
The Home Depot’s NRF announcements focused on using agentic AI to help customers and professionals move from planning to execution. Built on Gemini models and Gemini Enterprise for CX, the company introduced a major expansion of its Magic Apron assistant.
Magic Apron now acts as a conversational guide that understands projects described in plain language and responds with tailored recommendations, materials, and instructions. Customers can ask anything from basic repair questions to full renovation scenarios. In stores, Magic Apron is being tested as a localised AI agent that combines product knowledge with real-time inventory and aisle-level navigation, guiding shoppers directly to the right bay.
Professional customers can leverage AI-generated materials lists that turn voice, text, or uploaded plans into structured project estimates, helping contractors quote jobs faster. On the logistics side, new AI-powered route intelligence uses customer data, maps, and environmental conditions to predict delivery issues before they happen.
Customer support is also being reworked through conversational AI across chat, SMS, and voice, reducing reliance on menu-driven systems while improving resolution speed.
One Platform, Multiple Industries
Behind these brand-specific deployments is Google Cloud’s broader push to unify commerce and service through Gemini Enterprise for Customer Experience. The platform introduces prebuilt and configurable agents that can be deployed quickly and maintain context across channels and interactions.
A new Shopping agent supports complex reasoning, multimodal inputs like images and handwritten notes, and consent-based actions such as adding items to carts or resolving post-purchase issues. The Customer Experience Agent Studio allows businesses to build and scale support agents using existing transcripts and documents, with tools for real-time analysis, quality scoring, and human-assisted resolution.
Retailers like Kroger, Lowe’s, and Woolworths are already using these capabilities to personalise shopping journeys and streamline support at scale.
