Macy's AI Chatbot Boosts Online Sales Among Younger Shoppers

Artificial intelligence is reshaping retail, offering companies new ways to engage shoppers and drive sales.

The technology can help customers in ways that weren't possible before.

Macy's is one example of a retailer leaning into AI — and seeing results.

Macy's launched an AI-powered shopping assistant that is prompting early users to spend significantly more online, offering a potential lift for the retailer as it works to reverse years of declining sales.

The tool, called "Ask Macy's," became available to the general public in March on the company's website and app after weeks of internal testing. Built on Google's Gemini platform, the chatbot allows shoppers to describe what they are looking for in plain language and then generates product recommendations, styling ideas and related item suggestions, according to Bloomberg.

Macy's tested the assistant with roughly half of its website visitors and found that users spent more than four times as much as those who did not use it, according to Bloomberg.

Among the bot's most popular features is a virtual try-on tool that lets shoppers see how an item would look on them. Customers can also access the feature in stores when they do not have time for a fitting, Macy's chief stores officer Barbie Cameron told Bloomberg.

Max Magni, Macy's chief customer and digital officer, said shoppers using the chatbot may spend more because they are searching for a specific item rather than casually browsing. He also suggested the tool is attracting a younger, more experimental customer base.

Thousands of Macy's employees helped prepare the bot for public use, Magni said. The company employed 94,189 workers as of February 2025, according to Stock Analysis.

The launch reflects a broader push across the retail industry to develop proprietary AI tools. Retailers are concerned that without their own assistants, shoppers will turn to outside platforms like ChatGPT to guide purchasing decisions. About 40% of the top 20 U.S. retailers by revenue have introduced an AI-powered shopping assistant, per Bloomberg.

"Every retailer is trying to figure it out one step at a time," Magni told Bloomberg. "This is anybody's game. Nobody has cracked the code."

The most effective retail chatbots act "less like a chatbot and more like a personal shopping agent who knows the assortment and understands your preferences," Ali Furman, U.S. consumer markets industry leader at PwC, told Bloomberg.

Generative AI was used to draft this story, based on data provided by Bloomberg. It was reviewed and edited by Advance Local.