Kohl's Launches Ask Kohl's AI Shopping Assistant Built on Google Gemini for Back-to-School Season
Kohl's expanded its Google Gemini-powered AI assistant to help online and app shoppers find items, compare products, and track orders ahead of back-to-school season.
Overview
Kohl’s has launched an AI shopping assistant for its online and mobile app shoppers, the department store chain said in a press release, according to Retail Dive. The assistant, called Ask Kohl’s, is built using Google Cloud’s Gemini Enterprise for Customer Experience, according to Digital Commerce 360, and arrives as the retailer leans further into AI-driven tools ahead of the back-to-school shopping season.
What We Know
The AI assistant aggregates deals, provides personalized product recommendations, compares multiple products and searches for items using customers’ uploaded images, according to Retail Dive. It can also respond to shoppers’ promotion queries, track online orders, connect with customer service representatives and assist with services like buy online, pick up in store, Retail Dive reported. Digital Commerce 360 added that the assistant also guides shoppers through omnichannel and fulfillment features such as in-store stock status, and offers self-service order-tracking tools with the option to forward requests to customer service.
The new assistant builds on Kohl’s Gift Finder for Mother’s Day, which launched in April and also used Gemini Enterprise for Customer Experience to offer customized gift ideas based on a recipient’s hobbies, interests and style, according to Retail Dive. Kohl’s listed the new tool’s use cases in a July 29 announcement, Digital Commerce 360 reported, and customers were already using it for back-to-school shopping through the Ask Kohl’s option on the retailer’s ecommerce website.
In its announcement, Kohl’s said, “As we continue to enhance the experience, our goal remains the same: using technology in practical ways that make shopping simpler, more personal, and more helpful,” per Retail Dive. Kohl’s CEO Michael Bender addressed the AI push during the retailer’s May 28 earnings call, praising results from the Mother’s Day Gift Finder, according to Digital Commerce 360. “We’re encouraged by the initial results and about the potential for these AI-enabled experiences,” Bender said. “These enhanced shopping experiences will help improve product discovery and customer engagement, with further opportunity to support conversion and reduce friction across the shopping journey over time.”
Kohl’s is following other major retailers that have built their own AI assistants, including Macy’s, Michaels and Lowe’s — the latter has launched both Mylow for shoppers and Mylow Companion for store staffers, Retail Dive noted. Target has taken a similar approach with a Gemini-powered shopping agent, though it has rewritten its purchase terms to shift liability for agent purchasing errors onto customers. Google’s Gemini Enterprise platform, which underpins the Kohl’s and Target tools, was unveiled at Google Cloud Next 2026 as a rebrand and expansion of the company’s Vertex AI agent platform.
The launch comes as Kohl’s reported softer back-to-school demand signals industry-wide. A July survey from the National Retail Federation and Prosper Insights and Analytics found that 62% of shoppers had already begun making back-to-school purchases in the first weeks of July, down from 67% a year earlier, Digital Commerce 360 reported. The same survey found that just 50% of K-12 shoppers planned to purchase back-to-school items online, down from 55% in 2025, while the share of college shoppers planning online purchases fell to 41% — the lowest rate since 2016, when it stood at 38%.
Kohl’s has also been navigating softer financials. The retailer reported a 1.7% dip in net sales year over year in the first quarter, with comparable sales down 1.1%, though its net loss for the quarter narrowed by $1 million to $14 million, according to Retail Dive. Digital Commerce 360 ranks Kohl’s No. 25 in its Top 1000 Database of North America’s largest online retailers by annual ecommerce sales, and No. 473 in the publication’s new AI Rankings, according to Digital Commerce 360.
What We Don’t Know
Neither Kohl’s nor the two outlets that covered the launch disclosed usage figures, conversion rates, or other performance metrics for Ask Kohl’s since its expansion, nor a specific timeline for further feature additions beyond the general framing that the company is looking for “practical ways” to expand the tool.
Analysis
The rollout underscores how department-store and specialty retailers are converging on the same playbook: license a large cloud provider’s enterprise AI platform rather than build shopping assistants from scratch, and stage the launch around a seasonal shopping event to drive adoption. Kohl’s decision to expand an existing Gemini-based tool rather than introduce a new one also suggests retailers are treating these assistants as iterative products layered onto a single AI backbone, mirroring the approach Target has taken with its own Gemini-powered shopping agent — even as that comparison highlights an unresolved question across the industry over who bears responsibility when an AI shopping agent makes a purchasing mistake.