Photo by Karsten Winegeart on Unsplash
Woolworths Group is the first Australian retailer to partner with Google Cloud's agentic AI platform, Gemini Enterprise for Customer Experience (CX), announced at NRF (National Retail Federation) 2026 .
The AI technology improves the retailers’ shopping assistant Olive, moving from just a chatbot, into an active shopping partner that anticipates customer needs, plans meals based on personal preferences, and finds specials.
Olive will move beyond simple product searches to execute complex, multi-step tasks on behalf of customers, with their consent.
"Google Cloud's Gemini Enterprise for Customer Experience is a global game changer for retail," said Amanda Bardwell, chief executive officer and managing director of Woolworths Group.”
“As the first Australian retailer to partner with Google's agentic platform, we are evolving our digital shopping assistant Olive into an intuitive partner that won't just answer questions, but actually anticipates your needs, planning meals based on what you love and spotting the specials that matter to your budget."
Through the platform's multimodal feature, customers can interact through text, voice, or images across web, mobile with the AI system storing context throughout.
The technology introduces “complex reasoning”, the ability for AI agents to understand nuanced requests and filter across multiple variables simultaneously.
Woolworths joins a group of international retailers piloting the technology, including Kroger and Lowe's in the United States and is positioned to influence how the Australian market adapts to agentic AI, including local product preferences and regional shopping patterns.
"This is a practical innovation that's all about us doing the heavy lifting for you, making shopping that little bit easier to give you time back in your day," Bardwell said.
Darshan Kantak, vice president, Applied AI, Google Cloud, said the technology combines the best of technology to innovate the shopping experience.
"With Gemini Enterprise for Customer Experience, we are combining the best of Google Cloud's AI and infrastructure with a business's own institutional intelligence to power a truly agentic commerce journey,” Kantak said.
"By bridging the gap between sales and service, businesses can deliver premium, personalised experiences from initial discovery to post-purchase support, driving the customer delight that scales long-term loyalty and value."
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