The Home Depot is replacing phone menus with an AI-powered voice agent, built on Google Gemini for Customer Experience and powered by the latest Gemini conversational AI audio models to provide faster support for customer calls to U.S. stores. Instead of waiting through a list of options, customers can simply state why they’re calling in their own words.
Why it matters
Nobody likes being trapped in a phone menu when they have a project or job to finish. By grounding the system in The Home Depot’s product catalog and proprietary knowledge, the customer experience has moved away from “listening to options” to real solutions. AI handles the basics in seconds, so associates can focus on the customers in the store.
50 stores
The scope of the successful pilot program that proved the system’s efficiency.
<10 seconds
The time it takes for the AI agent to understand exactly why a customer is calling.
4x faster
How much quicker customers reach a solution compared to traditional phone menus.
What it does
- Ready-to-buy carts: Using the customers’ project description, the AI voice agent will build a digital shopping cart based on real-time online or in-store inventory.
- Direct action: The system can initiate service requests, text product links to pre-filled carts, and help complete purchases over the phone.
- Instant answers: The agent is empowered to resolve common inquiries from start to finish, like checking the status of an order, confirming product availability, and providing store information.
- Multilingual support: Real-time translations allow the system to process needs in many languages.
- Human-in-the-loop: Customers always maintain a direct path to a human associate.
- Associate impact: Pilot stores report higher job satisfaction as associates spend more time focused on in-store shoppers.
Our perspective
“Using customer service AI voice agents, we’re moving away from 'please listen to these options' and toward ‘how can I help?’ AI does a tremendous job at recognizing customer intent and taking direct action to help complete a purchase or even start a service request. And of course, if they need to speak with an associate, we’ll quickly connect them,” said Jordan Broggi, executive vice president of customer experience and president of online.
What’s next
The Home Depot plans to expand the AI customer service voice agent system to support all U.S. stores over the coming year.
