Woolworths moves Olive chatbot toward agentic AI with Google Cloud partnership

Woolworths is set to upgrade its Olive chatbot with agentic AI capabilities, as part of a new partnership with Google Cloud tied to the launch of Gemini Enterprise for Customer Experience.

The Australian retailer is included in Google Cloud’s global announcement of the platform at the National Retail Federation (NRF) trade show in the US, positioning Woolworths as the first local retailer to work with Google’s new agentic commerce technology.

Olive, which first launched in 2018, will evolve from a traditional chatbot into a more proactive digital assistant, with an initial focus on meal planning, personalised recommendations and budget-aware shopping support.

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Google Cloud describes Gemini Enterprise for Customer Experience as a platform that allows retailers to deploy AI agents capable of complex reasoning, multimodal interaction and executing multi-step tasks with customer consent.

While the technology can support actions such as adding items to carts and handling checkout, Woolworths’ early use of the platform appears more focused on planning and personalisation rather than transactional automation.

“As the first Australian retailer to partner with Google’s agentic platform, we are evolving our digital shopping assistant Olive into an intuitive partner that won’t just answer questions, but actually anticipates your needs,” Woolworths Group managing director and CEO Amanda Bardwell said.

“That means planning meals based on what you love and spotting the specials that matter to your budget. This is a practical innovation that’s all about doing the heavy lifting for customers and giving them time back in their day.”

Woolworths director of group customer Faysal Kalal said the integration would introduce a multimodal experience, allowing customers to interact with Olive using text, voice or images.

Customers could, for example, share a photo of a handwritten recipe or use voice commands to build a shopping basket, with Olive responding with faster and more predictive recommendations.

Google Cloud said Gemini Enterprise for Customer Experience is designed to bridge shopping and customer service into a single interface, maintaining context across discovery, purchase and post-purchase support.

Woolworths joins a group of international retailers piloting the technology, including Kroger and Lowe’s in the US, as global retailers test how agentic AI can reshape customer experience and commerce workflows.

Olive already integrates with some Google services, including tools that help customers locate products in-store, but the latest move signals a deeper push toward AI-led personalisation as competition intensifies across grocery and retail.