Lowe's, Home Depot Roll Out AI Assistants
Home improvement rivals Lowe’s and The Home Depot both unveiled artificial intelligence-powered shopper assistance tools within one day of each other.
Lowe’s Mylow
On March 5, Lowe’s debuted Mylow, a virtual home improvement advisor/AI assistant that the retailer is positioning as part of its nearly 300,000-associate labor force.
Mylow was developed in collaboration with OpenAI and leverages Lowe’s expertise. It allows customers (and associates) to ask questions about owning a home, such as project advice, step by step instructions and top-rated product searches, and receive real-time answers.
Mylow links project insights to product discovery to help shoppers find the right products for their projects. Customers using Mylow can also refine their local recommendations by providing details such as their project budget or ZIP code.
Mylow is currently available on desktop and mobile web for MyLowe's Rewards loyalty members or by visiting Lowes.com/Mylow. Customers can also expect Mylow voice capabilities and availability on the Lowe's app later this year.
"We're doubling down with emerging technology collaborators like OpenAI to solve problems for our customers and because we want the home improvement experience at Lowe's to be a cut above," Lowe's senior vice president of technology, Chandhu Nair, said in a media release.
The Home Depot’s Magic Apron
On March 6, Home Depot officially unveiled a similar AI assistant to help shoppers with their home improvement projects. Magic Apron, a proprietary suite of generative AI tools, can also answer shoppers’ how-to and product questions.
[Also Read: How Will AI-Assisted Shopping Impact Retail Media and Commerce?]
Magic Apron is currently available on the retailer’s website (e.g., within product pages) to answer product questions, provide project guides and summarize product reviews, according to a media release. It’s also available on the Home Depot mobile app.
Magic Apron leverages large language models and is trained on Home Depot's proprietary project expertise and product catalog as well as information from across the internet to improve search results.
Home Depot said Magic Apron leverages its proprietary knowledge base and its own human expertise to make the tool more accurate and helpful. The technology will continue to learn from customer and associate feedback and serve as a tool for store and contact center associates to better help customers, per the release.
