Walmart debuts Sparky, its generative AI assistant for customers

Joining Wally, an AI assistant for merchants, Sparky will summarize reviews for customers and help shoppers plan purchases.

By Xanayra Marin-Lopez • June 11, 2025

Generative AI enters ‘recommendation era’ as search falls to the wayside

“It used to be you could search for a brand or a product, or you could search for a price," Accenture's Jill Standish said. "But could you ask for advice?”

By Bryan Wassel • June 9, 2025

Explore the Trendline➔

Generative AI

In this Trendline, CX Dive explores how leaders are adopting generative AI in their CX practices.

By CX Dive staff

Business leaders expect agentic AI to take over customer service

The enthusiasm toward agentic AI in business circles is more muted for customers. Three-quarters of consumers believe customer service is now too impersonal.

By Kristen Doerer • May 30, 2025

Intuit leans into AI to improve taxpayer experience, boost revenue

The company’s AI agents and AI-aided human experts are reducing the time customers spend on returns, CEO Sasan Goodarzi said.

By Kristen Doerer • May 28, 2025

Lowe’s looks to pro loyalty program to drive higher spend

The retailer’s investments in AI advisers and loyalty programs are part of its efforts to accelerate sales growth among pro customers and digital.

By Kristen Doerer • May 22, 2025

Klarna credits AI for slashing customer service costs

Though the buy now, pay later firm will once again hire customer service agents, it sees its AI chatbot as a success that has cut costs.

By Kristen Doerer • May 21, 2025

Expedia sees AI as the biggest change in experience since mobile

The travel booking company launched a partnership with Instagram that lets users build and book itineraries on the social media platform.

By Bryan Wassel • May 13, 2025

ChatGPT is getting more shopper friendly

OpenAI wants to make it easier for shoppers to find, compare and buy products as more customers turn to generative AI for purchases.

By Xanayra Marin-Lopez • May 9, 2025

Klarna changes its AI tune and again recruits humans for customer service

Over a year after claiming that its AI chatbot could do the work of 700 representatives, Klarna is turning back to people to help with customer service work.

By Kristen Doerer • May 9, 2025

Airbnb brings AI customer service agent to half of US customers

“It's already led to a 15% reduction in people needing to contact live human agents," CEO Brian Chesky said.

By Kristen Doerer • May 6, 2025

Amazon remains bullish on AI as Alexa+ rolls out

The AI agent has reached more than 100,000 users to a positive early response, but Amazon is just beginning to reinvent CX through AI, according to CEO Andy Jassy.

By Bryan Wassel • May 5, 2025

Wendy’s to deploy drive-thru AI to over 500 restaurants this year

The chain has already installed Fresh AI at over 160 units as part of its larger strategy to improve the customer experience.

By Julie Littman • May 5, 2025

Consumers waffle over using social, generative AI to shop

Customers may not be comfortable with advanced shopping tech and allowing AI to analyze their personal data, according to a KPMG report. 

By Xanayra Marin-Lopez • May 2, 2025

For eBay, experiences are all about AI

More than 10 million unique sellers have used Magical Listings, which simplifies product listing using AI.

By Bryan Wassel • May 1, 2025

Online retailers in the US spent an average of $400k on AI last year

Despite aiming that investment at customer experience, 30% of executives told Storyblok that the tech only slightly improved the shopper’s experience.

By Tatiana Walk-Morris • April 30, 2025

Google keeps feedback, experience top of mind as it expands AI search

A more advanced version of AI Overview, called AI Mode, is collecting feedback from more advanced users that could inform the general search experience.

By Bryan Wassel • April 25, 2025

Inside Walmart’s all-in playbook for generative AI, agentic tools

The company is “throwing the doors wide open” and wants associates to use the technology every day, executives said.

By Lindsey Wilkinson • April 25, 2025

What troubles shoppers when searching online

Creating clear product landing pages that turn customer concerns into searchable content are key to help shoppers find what they’re looking for.

By Xanayra Marin-Lopez • April 21, 2025

How third-party conversational AI could upend customer service

Experts expect conversational assistants to take on the burden of making customer service queries for customers, but this creates new challenges for CX leaders.

By Bryan Wassel • April 14, 2025

Etsy marries AI and human touch with curated collections

The feature builds on the marketplace's holiday gift recommendation tool. But Chief Product Officer Nick Daniel says the company is "just scratching the surface" with AI.

By Xanayra Marin-Lopez • April 11, 2025

Amazon CEO: Generative AI will ‘reinvent virtually every customer experience’

The company is building more than 1,000 generative AI applications across the business to improve CX, Andy Jassy said.

By Kristen Doerer • April 10, 2025

Google Cloud touts new AI tools to simplify marketing, customer experience

At Google Cloud’s Next ‘25 conference, the tech giant will lay out innovations that speak to how brands and agencies can use artificial intelligence.

By Chris Kelly • April 10, 2025

Amazon pilots AI app feature that can buy items from third-party sites

Buy for Me can purchase eligible products from third-party sites without customers leaving the Amazon Shopping app.

By Bryan Wassel • April 7, 2025

Papa Johns will use Google AI for analytics, marketing

The pizza chain will use Google Cloud’s AI tools to optimize delivery routes, create a customer-facing chatbot and deliver personalized rewards in real time.

By Aneurin Canham-Clyne • April 7, 2025

Amazon taps AI for automatic product recommendations

The e-commerce giant gave a subset of U.S. users a tool that takes shopping prompts to routinely recommend items.

By Xanayra Marin-Lopez • April 4, 2025