Lowe’s AI tools boost sales and stores, a lesson for Big Lots workers
Lowe’s says Mylow lifts online conversion 3 times and adds 200 basis points to in-store satisfaction, a sign AI works when it helps associates, not replaces them.
Lowe’s is showing a version of retail AI that Big Lots workers should watch closely: not a flashy chatbot on the side, but a tool tied directly to selling, store execution and customer service. The company said its Mylow shopping assistant now handles more than 1 million customer inquiries a month and converts at three times the rate of shoppers who do not use it. In stores, Lowe’s said associates using Mylow Companion helped lift customer satisfaction scores by 200 basis points.
That matters because the design choices are doing the work. Mylow Companion launched on May 5, 2025 and was rolled out across more than 1,700 stores as an associate tool built for sales-floor devices. Lowe’s said it gives quick access to product details, project advice and inventory information, which makes it less like a corporate experiment and more like a work aid that can answer questions in the aisle, speed up problem-solving at the register and keep shoppers moving.
The company has tied that AI rollout to a broader omnichannel push aimed at DIY shoppers, loyalty features and fulfillment. On its May 20 first-quarter earnings report, Lowe’s said online sales rose 15.5% and it reaffirmed full-year fiscal 2026 guidance of $92 billion to $94 billion in sales and adjusted earnings of about $12.25 to $12.75 a share. That puts the AI tools inside a larger growth plan, not a disconnected tech project.
The strongest sign that this is more than branding is how Lowe’s has built the tools around frontline labor. Lowe’s said Mylow and Mylow Companion were developed with OpenAI, and the associate tool was described as the first at-scale AI system for retail workers. In a March 2026 company feature, Lourdes Villa described helping power Spanish translation inside Mylow Companion, showing that the system is being shaped for multilingual service as well as speed. Lowe’s also said more than 600 associates signed up for its 2026 AI Day and 24-hour hackathon, suggesting internal experimentation rather than a top-down rollout with no worker input.
For Big Lots, the useful takeaway is narrow but important: AI earns its keep when it improves store execution, customer service and online pickup or purchase flow. A tool that helps an associate find inventory, answer a product question or guide a shopper from browsing to buying can strengthen labor already on the floor. A tool that just adds another screen, another login or another layer of jargon is tech theater. Lowe’s is signaling which side of that line actually moves sales.
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