Online retailers refined and expanded how they used artificial intelligence (AI) in 2025, turning to internal tools, vendors and partnerships to drive better business outcomes.
As they did, AI platforms continued to evolve. ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini and other services played increasingly important roles in driving web traffic, conversion and speeding up fulfillment operations.
The year saw milestones for agentic commerce, which is the use of AI agents to autonomously execute actions on behalf of shoppers. Technology companies, including OpenAI and Salesforce, continue to pursue advanced levels of agentic commerce, integrating them more and more into online shopping journeys. Leading merchants in the Top 2000, Digital Commerce 360’s database ranking the largest North American online retailers by web sales, introduced new apps and partnerships to take advantage of emerging AI capabilities.
Here are 10 examples of how those online retailers used AI over the past year:
1. Target (No. 5)
When Target’s board selected Michael Fiddelke to become CEO in August, the move elevated the retailer’s chief operating officer who was already heavily invested in driving how Target uses AI. Since then, Target has gone beyond its existing chatbots and internal tools for demand forecasting. Notably, it launched a Target app inside OpenAI’s ChatGPT experience for the holidays.
2. Home Depot (No. 4)
The Home Depot was already a beneficiary of web traffic from AI sources. In one example, it led rankings in the Home & Garden category of a July report released by the traffic-monitoring service Similarweb. The retailer continues to search for ways to grow sales. Home Depot is using AI tools throughout its operations, leveraging Google Cloud and other technology to drive outcomes ranging from faster delivery speeds to improved customer engagement for the Magic Apron virtual assistant.
3. Nike (No. 13)
The NikeAI experience for the brand’s iOS app was just the most recent test for Nike’s AI use cases. In the past, those pursuits have aided its product design, customer experience and more. As the company continues to pursue a turnaround plan to get its core business back on course, its leadership clearly sees opportunities for AI to help it connect with a new generation of shoppers.
4. Walmart (No. 2)
Walmart’s vast resources were on full display in 2025 as the retailer detailed its family of Walmart “super agents.” Those high-level agents are designed to manage smaller agents for supplier issues, customer service, employee assistance and other domains. For online shoppers, Walmart’s ChatGPT partnership, announced in October, gives the second-largest online retailer in North America access to OpenAI’s agentic discovery and checkout tools.
5. Costco (No. 7)
Costco’s machine learning efforts have helped the company optimize inventory for its warehouses. Meanwhile, the company has worked with the technology vendor Travelport to curate travel recommendations for Costco members. And there may be more to come, based on comments during one of Costco’s earnings calls this year.
6. Ulta Beauty (No. 35)
Personalization and generative AI fit prominently into how Ulta Beauty uses AI to keep its GLAMlab experience engaging and improve discovery for the products that it sells. It has also been working behind the scenes to integrate agentic options. In fact, its chief technology and transformation officer expects to put new agentic technology to use in 2026.
7. Kroger (No. 6)
Kroger’s AI use cases encompass fulfillment to Mirakl’s ecommerce platform for the grocer’s online marketplace. Ronald Sargent, chairman of the board at Kroger, called AI “one of the key tools” for modernizing Kroger’s business as it grows — especially its digital sales.
8. The Gap (No. 20)
The Gap — which, like Home Depot, works with Google Cloud — rolled out new AI recommendations for Gap customers in time for the 2025 holiday season. Gap uses AI with its internal data product to decide what merchandise it should stock, and its CEO shared that AI and robotics have helped to improve productivity for the retailer’s fulfillment network by “nearly 30%.”
9. David’s Bridal (No. 468)
In 2025, David’s Bridal made its big agentic commerce bet, bringing its new agentic wedding planner out of beta to recommend options to its customers, based on important context and personal histories. The move occurred alongside David’s Bridal’s ecommerce site relaunch, which was done with Shopify.
10. Guitar Center (No. 115)
Guitar Center’s Rig Advisor assistant debuted in 2025, using AI to match customers with instruments and equipment tailored to unique circumstances and desired sounds. In addition, the retailer deployed its AI-enabled Pitch Perfect app for Guitar Center employees. Ultimately, both apps are geared toward driving higher satisfaction for its shoppers.
Do you rank in our databases?
Submit your data and we’ll see where you fit in our next ranking update.
Sign up
Stay on top of the latest developments in the online retail industry. Sign up for a complimentary subscription to Digital Commerce 360 Retail News. Follow us on LinkedIn, TikTok, X (formerly Twitter), Facebook and YouTube. Be the first to know when Digital Commerce 360 publishes news content.
