Gap Inc. enters AI partnership with Google
Gap Inc. intends to unlock efficiency and innovation in its enterprise using cloud-based AI technology from Google.
The apparel giant is entering a multi-year partnership with Google Cloud to accelerate its digital-enabled technology strategy to reimagine retail across its portfolio of brands, including Old Navy, Gap, Banana Republic and Athleta.
“AI is redefining what’s possible in retail, and we’re building our future technology roadmap around it,” said Sven Gerjets, CTO at Gap Inc. “We believe this partnership gives us the expertise and speed to bring AI to life across our business, empowering teams, sparking creativity, and delivering for customers faster and with greater personalization than ever.”
The collaboration will provide Gap with a unified, AI-powered platform including Google Cloud technologies such as Gemini, Vertex AI and BigQuery. Gap expects to gain several benefits, including:
Product innovation: Gap will leverage Google AI tools to help accelerate design, planning, and pricing throughout the product-to-market process.
Customer experience and marketing optimization: The retailer expects to offer hyper-personalized shopping, smarter recommendations, and seamless engagement with Google AI tools. In addition to its collaboration with Google Cloud, Gap is already working with Google Ads to leverage Google AI to drive ad placements, optimize campaigns across channels and improve its omnichannel capabilities.
Employee empowerment: Gap is using Google AI to integrate AI agents and human employees.
"Our partnership with Gap is about reinventing the retail landscape with AI and helping them lead the industry with speed, personalization, and game-changing customer experiences," said Thomas Kurian, CEO, Google Cloud. "Today, only Google offers a complete AI-optimized stack—from silicon to models to platform to apps and agents—that can deliver this kind of transformation."
Gap keeps rolling out robots
In another example of its efforts toward digital innovation, Gap has long been utilizing robots in its supply chain. Earlier this year, the company began utilizing Boston Dynamics "Stretch" robots to automate the inbound processing of boxes into distribution centers in Tennessee, Ohio, New York, and California.
In addition, the retailer has deployed hundreds of Kindred Sort picking robots in its U.S. distribution centers, and also designed and integrated an Exotec Skypod System to optimize its returns picking process. And in 2021, the company acquired Context-Based 4 Casting Ltd. (CB4), a New York- and Tel Aviv-based retail artificial intelligence and machine learning platform
[READ MORE: CSA Exclusive: Gap Inc. exec talks about retailer’s supply chain transformation]
As of the quarter ended May 3, 2025, Gap Inc. operates approximately 3,500 store locations in over 35 countries, of which 2,496 were company operated.
