Kingfisher signs Google Cloud deal for AI shopping

Kingfisher has signed a multi-year partnership with Google Cloud covering online shopping tools across its UK and European businesses.

The home improvement group will use Google Cloud's Vertex AI across the eCommerce platforms of B&Q, Castorama France and Poland, and Brico Dépôt France. The aim is to replace traditional keyword-led product search with more conversational shopping tools and lay the groundwork for AI agents that can help customers plan projects, build shopping lists and complete purchases.

Kingfisher operates more than 1,700 stores in seven European countries, making it one of the region's largest home improvement retailers. Its banners include B&Q, Castorama, Brico Dépôt, Screwfix, TradePoint and Koçtaş, and it employs more than 70,000 people.

The agreement extends an existing relationship between the two companies. Kingfisher's broader digital programme is already a significant part of the business, with eCommerce accounting for 20.7% of group sales at the end of the third quarter of its last reported financial period.

Search Upgrade

A central part of the partnership is the use of Vertex AI Search for Commerce. The system is designed to move Kingfisher's websites away from rigid keyword matching towards search that better interprets shoppers' natural-language queries.

That is particularly relevant in home improvement retail, where customers often search by project description rather than exact product names. Someone renovating a bathroom or fitting a kitchen may need a sequence of products across different categories, making discovery and recommendation more complex than in narrower retail segments.

Early trials at B&Q showed positive results, although Kingfisher did not disclose performance figures. The search changes are part of a broader effort to improve online conversion and make it easier for customers to find items relevant to larger home projects.

Agentic Focus

The partnership also focuses on what the companies describe as agentic AI in shopping. In practice, that means software tools designed to play a more active role in helping customers navigate a project, from planning and selecting materials to creating a basket and completing a transaction.

Kingfisher plans to use its product and data catalogues to build shopping agents that can support more complex tasks. These include assembling lists of materials for a job, suggesting related items and helping customers organise purchases across a project.

The move reflects a wider push in the retail industry to use generative AI beyond customer service chatbots and into product discovery, recommendations, and assisted buying. Retailers and technology providers are increasingly focused on whether AI systems can handle longer, more contextual interactions that resemble advice rather than simple search.

Kingfisher has already been developing its own internal AI tools. The group launched its in-house platform, Athena, in 2023 and has used it to support virtual assistants such as Hello Casto and Hello B&Q.

Behind the customer-facing changes, the retailer is also modernising Nucleus, its central data lake. The work is intended to provide a single data foundation for its AI projects and support the use of product, customer and operational information across digital services.

Kingfisher also works with Google's ads and shopping teams to improve online performance, indicating that the relationship extends beyond cloud infrastructure and AI tools into customer acquisition and digital merchandising.

Thierry Garnier, CEO of Kingfisher, said, "Through this partnership with Google Cloud, we are enabling our customers to search for and buy home improvement products with AI, delivering a fully personalised and easy shopping experience. These investments put Kingfisher at the forefront of AI-powered shopping, delivering meaningful innovation as part of our expanding digital ecosystem, and helping us to meet rapidly evolving customer needs."

Google Cloud presented the agreement as an example of how retailers are reshaping digital commerce around AI-driven interactions rather than standard website navigation. It said Kingfisher's work to prepare its data estate would be important to that shift.

Matt Renner, President and Chief Revenue Officer at Google Cloud, said, "Kingfisher is setting a new standard for how retailers can use innovative cloud solutions to solve complex customer problems. By integrating Google Cloud's Vertex AI and preparing its data for an agentic future, they are creating truly helpful, conversational shopping experiences. We are proud to be a part of Kingfisher's digital transformation across the UK and Europe."