Michaels Taps Google Gemini to Launch AI Shopping Assistant

Since its soft launch in May, the tool has already facilitated nearly 75,000 interactions across the company's desktop and mobile channels. Rather than relying on traditional filters, customers use natural language to describe specific projects, such as requests for party planning or fabric selection for home decor. Company data indicates that over 60% of these interactions focus specifically on product discovery within the retailer's extensive online catalog.

Heather Bennett, president and chief customer officer at Michaels, described the agent as a personalized creative partner rather than a simple search utility. The deployment highlights a rapid development cycle, with Google Cloud noting that the retailer moved the project from concept to production-grade implementation in just six weeks. Looking forward, the company intends to integrate AI-driven product summaries and contextual prompts directly into its product detail pages to further refine the customer journey.