Dive Brief:
- The Home Depot in late January debuted its Material List Builder AI tool, which helps professional renovators, remodelers, builders and tradespeople create project material lists.
- Users can type or dictate their queries using natural language; incorporate existing lists from spreadsheets, emails, texts or other documents; or use built-in list templates.
- Once the tool creates a list, it will autopopulate product recommendations with customers’ preferred pricing and inventory availability. Pros can select and order their desired items from that list as well as reorder items from previous lists, according to a company press release.
Dive Insight:
The Home Depot is doubling down on its tech features for Pro customers. The latest tool uses AI tech to generate actionable project lists with the goal of helping Pros stay on time and on budget with their projects.
“Pros often tell us that their most valuable resource for any job is time, so we're focused on delivering solutions that empower Pros to work smarter and faster,” Mike Rowe, executive vice president of Pro for The Home Depot, said in a statement. "Material List Builder AI generates reliable, comprehensive job lists in a fraction of the time it would take to complete this process manually, and Pros can then spend more time focused on their customers and the job at hand."
The Material List Builder AI is available for free to Pro Xtra members, within the Home Depot’s Project Planning tool.
The home improvement retailer unveiled the Project Planning tool, a digital hub where professional customers can track and manage their projects, last September. Later that fall, the company released its Blueprint Takeoffs tool, which uses AI to generate more accurate and cost-effective material lists and estimates for single-family project blueprints.
In a continued focus on the professional customer segment, The Home Depot named Michael Rowe — a nearly 20-year company veteran — executive vice president of Pro last March.
“We are uniquely positioned to win as we build out our Pro ecosystem, investing in capabilities to grow share of wallet with Pros no matter how they choose to shop with us,” CEO Ted Decker said in a statement at the time of Rowe’s appointment.
Last June, the retailer’s subsidiary SRS Distribution acquired specialty building products distributor GMS Inc. in a deal valued at $5.5 billion. The Home Depot purchased SRS Distribution, which caters to pool, roofing and landscaping contractors, for roughly $18.3 billion in 2024.
