Kroger announced an expanded relationship with Google Cloud that centers on deploying the Gemini Enterprise for Customer Experience platform to transform how customers plan, shop and discover food across its digital channels. The retailer plans to use the new agentic platform to power a personal shopping assistant that blends Google Cloud technology with Kroger’s existing food expertise, customer insights and service model. The rollout of Gemini Enterprise for Customer Experience is set to occur nationwide, with the aim of simplifying grocery planning through an integrated Meal assistant and Shopping assistant that accelerates shopping while honoring individual customer preferences.
Alongside Gemini Enterprise for Customer Experience, Kroger will adopt Customer Experience Agent Studio to analyze interactions and intent on calls made by customers to its stores. The company expects this capability to help identify and resolve issues earlier, improve associate productivity and support a more seamless, “white-glove” experience across the country. Kroger’s digital chief Yael Cosset said the Shopping assistant is designed to adapt to the context of a customer’s day, whether they are planning a week of dinners, looking for recipe inspiration or starting a new food regimen, and that the integrated assistant will create shopping lists aligned with budgets and family preferences while streamlining the full journey from building a basket and receiving relevant offers to scheduling delivery.
The new Shopping assistant builds on nearly 150 years of Kroger’s experience in helping families find foods they love, including its Our Brands private label lineup, multiple fulfillment options such as in store, pickup and delivery, and personalized offers and value. The assistant incorporates Artificial Intelligence enabled features such as intelligent execution through agentic integration so it can handle complex tasks from a single instruction, including exploring meal ideas, assembling carts for big occasions, reordering past purchases and comparing product details. It also offers an inspiration to cart flow that can turn a request like “I want to prepare vegan tomato soup” into a guided recipe with a detailed ingredient list that can be placed into a cart with a single click. Recommendations are grounded in Kroger’s proprietary data asset, actual assortment, pricing and availability to keep suggestions accurate and actionable, which Google Cloud executive Darshan Kantak described as placing generative and agentic Artificial Intelligence at the heart of Kroger’s customer journey and setting a new standard for grocery as a comprehensive digital concierge.
The announcement situates the initiative within Kroger’s broader purpose “To Feed the Human Spirit” across its family of companies, which includes more than 400,000 associates serving over 11 million customers daily through an eCommerce shopping experience and retail food stores operating under various banner names. The company highlights its focus on food inspiration, community uplift and #ZeroHungerZeroWaste goals as the broader context for its digital investments. Google Cloud, for its part, positions itself as providing an Artificial Intelligence centric cloud platform with infrastructure, custom chips, generative Artificial Intelligence models, development tools and Artificial Intelligence powered applications that support organizations worldwide, and notes that customers in more than 200 countries and territories turn to it as a technology partner.
