Best Buy is pushing artificial intelligence (AI) into areas of its operations in 2026, and its leadership team has described wider ambitions for how Best Buy will use AI to achieve near-term objectives.
In March, while speaking at the UBS Global Consumer and Retail Conference, Best Buy CEO Corie Barry called AI “a huge enabler of growth,” as well as for “good employee experiences.” At the time, she was addressing AI tools as internal resources for solving team members’ own problems. However, she also outlined how certain use cases will extend to customers as well.
Shoppers-facing AI deployments have since followed, notably with Best Buy opting to leverage OpenAI’s ChatGPT.
Best Buy ranks No. 8 in the Top 1000 Database. The market research tool tracks North America’s largest online retailers by their annual ecommerce sales.
Best Buy is also No. 200 in Digital Commerce 360’s AI Rankings. That set of rankings is available in the Top 1000 Pro with AI Database.
How Best Buy is using AI internally
“I had an employee who — literally over the weekend — rewrote and created an agent for all of our employee tools,” Barry said in March.
Barry described this rewritten internal AI agent as responding to text-based input and said that the new version “now scrapes” information for employees to provide improved responses.
“Now our employees can ask very normal human questions like ‘I’m new here, what are the forms I need to fill out?’ and it’s populating,” she stated. “And then that agent will be able to repurpose to also start to solve customer support problems because it’s not like you just write an agent and it only solves one thing.”
Importantly, she said the agent is “solving customer problems,” too. The output has applications for areas such as marketing and audience segmentation.
“Some of our most powerful use cases are things like creating audiences, like I can take outside signals in data,” she stated.
Using internal data, Best Buy looks to AI solutions to then inform how it will target those audiences.
“Now I have LLMs that will mash all that data together and tell me exactly how to target someone,” Barry said. “If they’ve been lapsed, I can pick them at just the right moment because I’m seeing the right demand signals, target them, and we’re seeing improved — an improved ability to bring that customer back to the brand.”
What is Best Buy’s Ask Blue shopping assistant?
In August, Best Buy detailed how it was rolling out its new customer-facing shopping assistant, Ask Blue. Jason Bonfig, senior executive vice president, chief customer and product and fulfillment officer at Best Buy, told analysts on the retailer’s Q2 earnings call that Ask Blue brought together multiple areas of expertise to enable outcomes for shoppers.
“Speaking of online experiences, I’m excited to announce the launch of Ask Blue, our new conversational AI shopping and support assistant,” he said during the call. “It brings together expertise from across Best Buy’s website in one easy-to-use experience.”
Altogether, Bonfig characterized Ask Blue as added value for online shoppers.
“It combines product knowledge, support, resources, customer reviews, availability and pricing to help customers make informed decisions,” he assessed. “Ask Blue will help customers figure out what tech is right for them.”
He cited examples such as comparing products, identifying important differences, checking compatibility and getting additional support. That may include connecting the shopper with a human support specialist.
Best Buy web sales by year
How Best Buy is working with OpenAI on agentic commerce
In addition, Best Buy has eyed new ways for online shoppers to discover its product listings through AI channels.
“We’re also continuing to partner with AI companies like OpenAI to make sure we are showing up in the places where our customers look for technology and advice,” Bonfig noted on the August earnings call. He is scheduled to replace Barry as Best Buy’s CEO on Nov. 1.
Bonfig described Best Buy’s recent “commerce integration with OpenAI,” which the company is promoting among its holiday plans for discovery and gift-buying.
“Customers can now discover products, receive recommendations and complete purchases for Best Buy directly within ChatGPT,” Bonfig told analysts. “We view this as an important step in expanding our digital ecosystem and positioning Best Buy at the forefront of emerging AI-enabled commerce experiences.”
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