The Home Depot extends AI assistance in local stores

Dive Brief:

The Home Depot expanded its AI assistant, Magic Apron, to include localized store knowledge to assist in-store shoppers, the retailer said in a Thursday press release.
Users can ask questions through text, voice-to-text and image search queries. Shoppers can also use Magic Apron to find items, navigate stores more efficiently, ask product questions and get personalized guidance.
The tool is now available in all of the company’s over 2,000 U.S. locations. Customers can use it while using Store Mode in the retailer’s mobile app or scan a QR code on signs in stores.

Dive Insight:

Magic Apron is ready to help further assist customers in their local Home Depot store.

Customers can interact with Magic Apron in their preferred language. The tool gives shoppers a map for their local store, helps them find the location of a product by aisle and can obtain information about item availability in their store as well as other locations.

Magic Apron builds on the retailer’s Store Mode feature, which launched in 2022.

“Magic Apron takes the best of our digital expertise and brings it into the physical store, creating a more connected shopping experience that helps customers find products, get project guidance and make decisions faster,” Jordan Broggi, executive vice president of Interconnected Retail, said in a statement. “Our associates remain at the center of the shopping experience, and Magic Apron gives customers another way to access guidance and support while they’re in our stores.”

The Home Depot debuted Magic Apron in March 2025 as a suite of generative AI tools designed to respond to customers’ questions and refine search results. The tool launched on the retailer’s website and through its mobile app, and performed how-to instructions, suggested products and summarized reviews.

Today, the AI assistant responds to millions of questions every month, the company said in its Thursday press release.

Since then, Home Depot has continued to develop the tool. In January, the company announced an expanded partnership with Google Cloud to develop more Magic Apron capabilities by allowing customers to engage with the tool using plain language and receive conversational advice.