Kohl’s debuts AI gift finder, analytics tools that aid associates

Kohl’s is using AI for more than helping shoppers pick a present. The retailer’s new Mother’s Day Gift Finder pairs a conversational shopping agent with an internal analytics tool that is meant to give associates faster answers about products, trends and sales drivers, changing part of the day-to-day job on the selling floor.

The gift finder lets shoppers describe a mom’s interests, hobbies and style and get personalized ideas back. Customers can also upload an image to surface similar products, browse recommendations, view product details and add items to their cart without leaving the chat. Kohl’s built the experience with Google Cloud’s Gemini Enterprise for Customer Experience, a platform Google says is designed to bring shopping and customer service into a single agentic system.

For associates, the more consequential shift may be behind the scenes. Kohl’s said it is testing an AI analytics tool powered by Google Cloud’s Conversational Analytics in Looker so employees can ask straightforward questions about product trends by category or brand. Instead of manually stitching together several reports, an associate could get a faster read on what is moving and why. In a store environment where time is spent juggling guests, stock checks and the constant pressure of the next task, that kind of shortcut can decide whether a conversation ends in a sale or a missed opportunity.

The move fits a broader retail trend in which AI is being used as a selling aid and an information layer, not just an automation tool. Google Cloud has been pitching this as an “agentic commerce” era, where systems can plan, reason and act under supervision. In practical terms, that means retail AI is moving toward tools that help employees surface information faster and give shoppers more confidence in what they are buying.

Kohl’s is also trying this while it works through a broader business turnaround. The company recently said its fourth-quarter sales were about $5 billion, down almost 4% from a year earlier, while net income rose 160% to $125 million. Target introduced its own gift finder in November 2025, and Simon rolled out its AI-guided HolidAI tool in 2023, showing how quickly the category is becoming crowded. For store teams, the real test is whether these systems reduce friction on the floor or simply raise the pace of work with a new digital layer on top.