Buy Or Sell: Lowe's AI Assistance For In-store Associate Customer Service?
In this insightful analysis, sponsored by the A&M Consumer and Retail Group, Simbe, Mirakl, Ocampo Capital, Infios, and ClearDemand, retail experts reveal what Lowe's new AI assistant is really designed to accomplish, beyond the surface-level marketing about leaky faucets and fertilizer choices.
Key Moments:
0:02 - Breaking news: Lowe's introduces MyLow Companion AI assistant for store associates
0:10 - Partnership details: Application developed with OpenAI across 1,700+ stores
0:14 - Core functionalities: Product details, project advice, and inventory information access
0:18 - Key benefit: Accelerating the employee onboarding process
0:27 - Scale achievement: "First retailer to successfully implement this type of technology at scale"
0:33 - Technical capabilities: Generative AI with natural conversational prompts and voice-to-text
0:42 - Example use cases: Fertilizer recommendations and home repair guidance
1:14 - Ben Millers's analysis: Why this is "a great use case for AI" in categories requiring expertise
1:38 - Customer service challenge: Associates' varying experience levels and knowledge gaps
1:50 - Consistency benefit: Creating uniform quality of information regardless of associate tenure
2:00 - Comparison to self-checkout: Options for customers who prefer different service models
2:22 - Anne Mezzenga's critique of the media reporting: Overlooking the more significant training use case
2:42 - Inside information: Conversation with a Lowe's executive reveals true onboarding purpose
2:56 - Real examples: New employees quickly learning shipment timing and warranty information
3:03 - Data collection value: Using interaction data to improve future associate training
3:12 - Customer perspective: Why shoppers wouldn't ask a teenage summer employee about complex repairs
3:40 - Chris Walton's agreement: "100% I'd look this up myself" rather than wait for an associate
4:00 - PR criticism
4:20 - Industry impact concern: Creating false expectations about AI tools for retail associates
4:43 - Higher-value application: Supporting complex high-consideration sales like flooring installations
4:54 - Advanced capability: Prompting associates to ask the right questions based on customer responses
5:01 - Integration potential: Connecting to loyalty programs to enhance personalized selling
The experts conclude that while Lowe's marketing focuses on answering simple product questions, the real innovation is in employee training, knowledge management, and creating consistency across a large retail workforce.
Catch the full episode here: https://youtu.be/BrQ0kfPY4LA
#loweshomeimprovement #ai #retailnews #retailtech #retailstrategy #retailtrends
This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis:
Podcorn - https://podcorn.com/privacy
Transcript
Lowe's has rolled out an AI assistant for Store Associates, according to Chain Storage.
Speaker A:Again, Lowe's is introducing Milo Companion, an AI enabled employee app developed in partnership with OpenAI.
Speaker A:The app provides access to product details, project advice and inventory information, and also speeds up the employee onboarding process.
Speaker A: sociates across its more than: Speaker A:Milo Companion uses generative AI to let associates obtain answers to customer inquiries using natural conversational prompts, including voice to text for faster hands free use.
Speaker A:The prompts can include inquiries like what kind of fertilizer works best for Bermuda grass?
Speaker A:Or how can I fix a leaky faucet and receive actionable information on the handheld devices that they already use.
Speaker A:Ben, you get this question and it is also the A and M put you on the spot question they want to know.
Speaker A:Ben, if Lowe's customers can now access the same AI assistant as In Store Associates, do you think they'll eventually just turn to their phones for In Store Home improvement?
Speaker B:Asks I think it's a really good question and I think it's okay that it doesn't have to be an either or, and I think both are absolutely fine.
Speaker B:So I really like this.
Speaker B:This is a great use case for AI.
Speaker B:Why is it a great use case for AI?
Speaker B:There are certain categories where you a higher level of customer service is really helpful, but when you walk into the store, you've got no idea if the person you're speaking to has been in this category selling these products for 20 years or was just recruited last week and knows less about it than you do.
Speaker B:So providing tools to help that consistency of experience is great.
Speaker B:And you know what?
Speaker B:If actually you're stood in front of the fixture and you just want to do that same query on your phone, that's okay.
Speaker B:It's like the checkout versus Self checkout option.
Speaker B:Sometimes introverts just like to walk around the store without talking to anybody and that's okay as well.
Speaker B:So let's not see it as a negative.
Speaker B:I think it's fine.
Speaker B:You're democratizing the data and you're providing a better quality of response to everybody regardless of how they want to access it.
Speaker B:And I think for that, great, well done Lowe's.
Speaker A:Yeah, I agree.
Speaker A:I'm going to knock the reporting on this one a little bit too, because I feel like it's it's just highlighting that particular use case of how to fix a leaky faucet and not what I think Lowe's set out like.
Speaker A:I think Lowe's deserves more credit for what they set out to partner with Chat GPT to create with this Milo assistant, which really after talking to a Lowe's executive earlier this year who worked on this project, which really was about how do we use this for onboarding, how do we help our associates in the store who just started their summer job at Lowe's understand very quickly, like what time does our shipment get in, how quick, you know, what's our warranty like on these power tools so that they can quickly have that knowledge.
Speaker A:And then Lowe's was using that to help them better train associates in the future.
Speaker A:Like they're using that data in that way.
Speaker A:And I agree.
Speaker A:I think the idea that as a consumer, I'm going to go up to the 16 year old for their first summer job at Lowe's and be like, how do I fix this leaky faucet?
Speaker A:You'll know real quick whether or not you're getting the expert there or somebody who's just going to collectively look at Chat or this Milo assistant with you on it.
Speaker A:But I think there's still value here in what Milo was set out to do.
Speaker A:But Chris, do you agree with that or are you, are you still, are you thinking that you're not going to, you'd look this up yourself?
Speaker C:I think 100 I look, I look this up myself, but I think there's still value in it.
Speaker C:You know, like if, if I don't know how to fix a leasy leaky faucet, I don't want to stand there as a sales associate, you know, Chat GPTs that for an answer for me when I could just do that myself.
Speaker C:That just makes, that makes no sense.
Speaker C:So, so and again, in addition to the media though, I think, I think Lowe's PR deserves some, some, some tarnish here on, on their, on, on them as well.
Speaker C:And I like Lowe's pr.
Speaker C:We've worked with them a lot of times.
Speaker C:But like, like Chase Rage didn't get the line about the fertilizer and the leaky faucet on their own.
Speaker C:That was fed to them through like their communications team.
Speaker C:And so they're, they're picking up and running with it.
Speaker C:And so, and that's where the disservice comes in I think for the, the retail industry overall because they're looking at this, they're seeing those use cases and then some people are probably going, oh, do we need tools to arm our sales associates to make them better at their jobs.
Speaker C:Probably not in this way because at the end of the day we already know people go into stores and think that they know more than the associate anyway because they probably been in the job for like two weeks.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker C:So that phenomenon is still going to be there.
Speaker C:But from a, from a training perspective, it's important even as a great tool to assist the high consideration sale where, you know, like you're, you're having to walk people through a flooring installation as an example or something like that.
Speaker C:Like, that can then prompt the sales associate for like, these are the questions you need to ask based on the responses that you're hearing from them to understand more about who they are.
Speaker C:Or you can pipe the loyalty program into those employee devices too and get all the benefits from the questions that you can ask in a highly assisted sale.
Speaker C:That stuff matters.
Speaker C:But, but the way the story is positioned, there's, there's no way, there's, there's no way I'm asking somebody.
Speaker C:I'm just going to chat whatever fertilizer I need for my Bermuda grass, you know?
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:I mean, or you looked it up.
Speaker A:Like you'd have looked up how to fix your leaky faucet and made the list before you go into BMI.
Speaker A:Yeah, right, right.
Speaker C:For something simple like that, 100%, yes.
