Google Cloud has placed sharp focus in recent weeks on AI-driven retail services, making several announcements aimed at the retail industry. The goal is to tackle key challenges faced by retailers, such as rising costs, supply chain issues, complex pricing demands, and high employee turnover.
A highlight of these announcements, made during Google Cloud’s participation at NRF 2025, Retail’s Big Show, is a demonstration of specialized Google Agentspace tools designed specifically for the retail sector. These tools build upon the capabilities of Google Cloud’s AI agent development platform.
Using Agentspace, retailers can get insights from text, images, video, and audio sources for an intuitive user experience, while NotebookLM for enterprise enables retail employees to get more from company assets.
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“Retailers can now use AI agents to personalize the customer experience by offering tailored product recommendations, answering questions in real-time and guiding shoppers through the buying process,” says Carrie Tharp, vice president, global solutions & industries, Google Cloud. “AI agents can also streamline operations by automating tasks like inventory management, customer service and even loss prevention, allowing employees to focus on higher-value work.”
Advanced Search Capabilities
Google Cloud has also launched Vertex AI Search for Commerce. This new feature allows retailers to incorporate GenAI, traditional search, browsing, and product recommendations into their storefronts. The updated capabilities include Conversational Commerce, a feature in Vertex AI Search that provides a more natural engagement process for customers.
Another new feature is the Gen AICatalog and Content Enrichment solution, which helps retailers improve their product catalog listings by leveraging Gemini 1.5 Pro, Gemini 1.5 Flash, and Imagen 3 to support multi-agent workflows for seamless product onboarding.
Additionally, Google Cloud offers various connected store options, a combination of infrastructure, software, and AI. These solutions enable the integration of data, insights, and AI to enhance customer experiences and include infrastructure products like Google Distributed Cloud, BigQuery data products, and Vertex AI.
“The retail industry is no stranger to change, but this moment in time feels different,” says Tharp. “The rapid advancement of AI is creating a sense of urgency and opportunity to meet evolving customer expectations and to help address issues like rising costs and supply chain complexities.”
Customer Story: Wayfair
One online retailer that is utilizing Google Cloud’s AI tools to increase productivity is the home decor giant Wayfair. Wayfair recently announced an extension of its partnership with Google Cloud, which includes enhancing its product catalog using advanced Gemini models on Vertex AI and improving collaborative practices through Google Workspace.
So far, Gemini has enabled Wayfair to speed up time to market through automated categorization, saved money through this and other automated processes, and improved the quality of listings. This has led to an overall better customer experience.
“At Wayfair, we believe GenAI is the key to unlocking the next generation of retail experiences,” said Fiona Tan, chief technology officer at Wayfair. “With Google Cloud, we’ve been able to efficiently scale and enrich our product catalogs, enabling us to support a more seamless and engaging shopping experience for our customers.”
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