Home Depot deploys AI across stores, e-commerce, and delivery

Home Depot has assembled a new technology leadership trio to drive AI adoption across its retail operations, from customer service to logistics, according to a report by Fortune.

Franziska "Fran" Bell joined as chief technology officer in April after leading data and AI at Ford Motor. She works alongside Angie Brown, a 27-year company veteran who became CIO last year, and Jordan Broggi, who oversees the retailer's $25 billion e-commerce business and customer experience.

AI tools in production

The company is testing several AI systems in live environments. A customer service voice agent built with Google Cloud completed a 50-store pilot, demonstrating it could identify caller intent within 10 seconds. Magic Apron, a generative AI assistant launched in March 2025, answers shopper questions and summarizes product reviews using Home Depot's product catalog.

The Magic Apron rollout revealed a critical lesson: professional contractors and DIY customers need different experiences. When pros encountered questions they considered too basic, Home Depot pulled the professional version offline for refinement. The company is now fine-tuning its large language models and preparing multilingual versions for store employees' smartphones.

Internally, office workers have access to Microsoft Copilot, while Anthropic's Claude accelerates software development. Machine learning algorithms optimize workflows for store associates.

Three strategic priorities

Brown said all AI investments must support one of three goals: enhancing in-store merchandising, building an interconnected digital retail ecosystem, or growing the professional contractor segment, which generates higher transaction values than consumer shoppers.

Unlike some technology leaders who concentrate on fewer, larger AI use cases, Brown takes a broader approach. "If AI can help solve those problems that we have already identified from a business perspective, I'm not going to hold them back," she said.

One backend system, called "order intelligence," analyzes millions of past delivery data points to calculate risk scores. The system identifies potential complications—gate codes, narrow access roads, optimal truck sizes—and proactively contacts customers with accurate delivery windows. Broggi noted customers don't care about the AI itself: "They just want their stuff delivered on time, complete, undamaged, and with clear communication."

Preparing for AI commerce platforms

Home Depot is developing a generative engine optimization (GEO) strategy as consumers increasingly shop through AI chatbots. The retailer enables purchases through ChatGPT and supports Google's Universal Commerce Protocol for agentic commerce.

Broggi acknowledged the AI shopping landscape remains undefined, with platform developers changing priorities multiple times. "They've got to try to figure out how they want to go to market," he said.

Why it matters

Home Depot's multi-front AI deployment illustrates how large retailers are moving beyond experimentation to production systems that touch customers, employees, and operations. The company's willingness to iterate publicly—pulling back the pro version of Magic Apron when it missed the mark—demonstrates that even well-resourced AI implementations require rapid adjustment based on user feedback. As the No. 25 company on the Fortune 500 navigates economic headwinds including weak housing markets and inflation concerns, its technology investments aim to defend market position against rivals while serving two distinct customer bases with fundamentally different needs.

These details were first reported by John Kell for Fortune's CIO Intelligence newsletter.