en.Wedoany.com Reported - Bunnings, a retailer operating over 500 stores across Australasia, has launched an agentic artificial intelligence shopping assistant named "Buddy," designed to mimic the service style of its store staff and provide customers with digital shopping guidance. The tool went live over the recent Easter weekend, marking the first AI project among Australian retailers to use Google Cloud's new Gemini enterprise-grade customer experience product, completed in just over six weeks from implementation to launch.
Bunnings, which operates over 500 stores in Australasia, developed this agentic shopping assistant named Buddy. Consumers no longer need to interact with human experts face-to-face; Buddy provides digital guidance directly from the customer's device, handling multi-step tasks, answering complex questions, and helping customers find niche products.
Buddy can not only read customers' wish lists but also process photos of handwritten requests. It recommends suggested items in the shopping cart, guessing what customers might still need while considering their budget and power tool preferences. The tool is now live on bunnings.com.au and will replace the existing Ask Bunnings AI tool. Bunnings stated that this "conversational" upgrade marks a significant step toward integrating browsing, planning, and purchasing into a unified experience.
Vivek Pradhan, General Manager of Data and AI at Bunnings, acknowledged that the company's first attempt at the "Ask Bunnings AI" chatbot had issues with customers switching between browser tabs, an inability to process images, and suboptimal recommendation optimization. Darshan Kantak, Vice President of Applied AI Products at Google Cloud, revealed that Gemini enterprise-grade customer experience was launched at the National Retail Federation show in the United States in January 2026. After the team met with Bunnings in their office, it took only weeks from the initial meeting to deployment.
The AI tool is not static and will continue to be enhanced for customers. Pradhan stated that Bunnings' digital transformation journey has been ongoing for about six years, and Buddy's debut is the latest initiative to continuously improve customer experience. Buddy is programmed to embody Bunnings' practical wisdom, drawing from the retailer's library of "how-to" guides and the expertise of its internal staff. It is configured with Bunnings-specific guardrails and has undergone extensive testing to ensure it provides practical, responsible advice consistent with how the team supports customers in stores.
Mike Schneider, Managing Director of Bunnings, stated that if customers miss human service, staff remain available at all times. He added that Buddy is not meant to replace store employees but to empower them while meeting the expectations of customers who desire more flashy features, added benefits, and AI magic. Stores have also equipped employees with AI-enabled Zebra devices to help them navigate complex warehouse aisles more efficiently, allowing staff to spend more time on customer interactions, which in turn helps increase average order value.
According to Bunnings, other innovative features of Buddy include product search, price and inventory inquiries, DIY advice, and project planning guidance, all completed through the existing online checkout. Its arrival marks Bunnings' accelerated leap into data-driven retail and demonstrates how the store is streamlining its operations.
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