Shownotes
In this Omni Talk Retail episode, recorded live from NRF 2026 in the Vusion Podcast studio, Angie Brown, Chief Information Officer at Home Depot, reveals how 27 years with one company positions her to witness retail's transformation from mobile to e-commerce to AI and why waiting on agentic commerce is not an option.
From announcing an expanded Google partnership with Gemini rollout to piloting Magic Apron agents in physical stores, Angie breaks down how AI is solving problems Home Depot couldn't tackle before. She shares insights on accelerating software development cycles, why five-year plans no longer work, delivery routing intelligence that accounts for gates and narrow roads, and the strategic bet on learning agentic commerce across multiple partner platforms simultaneously.
If you've wondered what purposeful AI deployment looks like at retail scale, this is your roadmap from one of home improvement's top technology leaders.
🔑 Topics covered:
-27-year journey at Home Depot: from entry-level developer to CIO
-Why "five-year plans don't work anymore" in retail technology
-Google partnership expansion: Gemini, Magic Apron, delivery routing intelligence
-AI's impact on software development: ideation to implementation speed gains
-Magic Apron evolution: from website tool to in-store pilot agent
-Agentic commerce strategy: learning on Home Depot properties AND discovery platforms
-Call center AI extending to store-level phone experiences
-Delivery routing using AI to predict gates, narrow roads, and success likelihood
-Pro customer focus: digital project lists powered by generative AI
-Why this is "not a time to sit back and wait" on agentic commerce
🎧 Don't forget to like, comment, and subscribe for more retail tech insights!
#homedepot #retailai #agenticcommerce #googlegemini #retailtech #omnitalk #retailinnovation #magicapron #retailleadership #airetail #procustomer #retailpodcast
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Transcripts
Hello, everyone.
Speaker A:Welcome back.
Speaker A:This is amitalk Retail.
Speaker A:I'm Anne Mazinga.
Speaker B:And I'm Chris Walton.
Speaker A: we are coming to you from NRF: Speaker A:We have an exceptional guest once again.
Speaker A:We have for the first time now.
Speaker B:Yes, first time.
Speaker A:Joining us, thank you so much.
Speaker A:We have Angie Brown, the Chief Information Officer at Home Depot.
Speaker A:Angie, thank you so much.
Speaker C:It's great to be here.
Speaker C:Thank you for the invitation.
Speaker A:I mean, you been doing so many things today.
Speaker A:You have announcements, you have been on stage, you've done everything.
Speaker A:So we really appreciate you taking the time to meet our audience at home.
Speaker C:Absolutely.
Speaker B:So like Ann said, this is the first time on the show.
Speaker B:So again, thank you for that.
Speaker B:For me too.
Speaker B:And so I'm question, just want to start off by, you know, asking you tell us about your background and tell us about your role too.
Speaker B:Like, I'm curious, how does, how does Home Depot think about the role of a cio?
Speaker C:Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker C:So my background, I'm a little bit of an anomaly in that I've spent my entire technical career with one location at Home Depot.
Speaker C:Really?
Speaker C:Yes.
Speaker B:Wow.
Speaker B:Needle and a stack of needles.
Speaker C:I came in my, my running joke two weeks out of college as an entry level developer, lowest of the low, and then have built my career over 27 years there with that company.
Speaker C:So it's been an absolutely fabulous ride with the organization.
Speaker C:And you can imagine during that time things have changed a lot.
Speaker C:So all in technology a few times.
Speaker C:Wow.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker C:Yes, yes, yes.
Speaker C:So when we talk about the difference that mobile has made or the difference that Ecom has made and now the difference that AI has made, I have witnessed all those journeys.
Speaker C:But all that being said, as far as my role now, I stepped into the CIO role at the end of May, which has been super exciting.
Speaker A:Congratulations.
Speaker C:Thank you very much.
Speaker A:That's a major accomplishment.
Speaker C:And Home Depot, so lucky to have.
Speaker A:You from your very start and now in one of the biggest roles.
Speaker A: ted as CIO in May and just in: Speaker C:Did this past year, it's definitely been a year of change.
Speaker C:And so you think about stepping in, in this moment for the team, it's been a change in leadership for all of us.
Speaker C:It's been a change in technology, how we build going forward.
Speaker C:So I think, you know, definitely that beginner's mindset from the team the excitement around everything that's continuing to evolve, how we can use the new technologies that are coming onto market.
Speaker C:There's been a tremendous amount of agility demonstrated and those are just some of the things that from a team dynamics perspective, I'm so thankful and excited about and just want to commend the organization on.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:And how do you think about, you know, with.
Speaker A: of the change that you saw in: Speaker C:Absolutely.
Speaker C:So one of the priorities that we've had is being more nimble in our priorities because it is, I mean, very much a changing landscape and we've got.
Speaker B:To get five year plans don't work anymore.
Speaker C:Yeah, very comfortable with continuing to modify what our priorities are.
Speaker C:You know, if you think about anything from like how we write code and how we develop, that entire life cycle is continuing to shift and we have a tremendous amount of priority on that and we can solve problems that we haven't been able to solve historically.
Speaker C:Whether it be things like, yeah, absolutely.
Speaker C:You think about our pro customer and bringing together like a digital project list for them with, you know, the generative tools that are on the market now.
Speaker C:That's been a really neat opportunity to lean into that like on our B2B website.
Speaker C:Similarly, we're able to do things from a delivery routing perspective that we didn't have the ability to do previously.
Speaker C:So there's just, you know, our core Home Depot focus is, you know, protecting the core, taking care of our customers, continuing to lean into pro and interconnected.
Speaker C:And we're using AI across all of those to bring these journeys to life.
Speaker B:That's really interesting.
Speaker B:Yeah, I never thought about that.
Speaker B:AI helps you get to the projects that you couldn't get to before.
Speaker B:That's really insightful.
Speaker C:It helps solve problems.
Speaker C:Yes.
Speaker C:That would have either taken a lot longer or been a lot more difficult to solve.
Speaker B:Right, right, right.
Speaker B:And so to that point, you also just made a big announcement this morning to that end.
Speaker B:So tell us about it.
Speaker C:Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker C:So we've been partners with Google for some time, but we're really excited today to announce a broader relationship with some of the new tools that are coming onto the market.
Speaker C:It's really exciting to talk about, like how we've been collectively bringing those to life.
Speaker C:We have rolled out Gemini to our workforce, to a significant portion of our workforce, and we're excited about that.
Speaker C:But in addition to that, we've Been leveraging some of the tool sets that they've brought to life to continue to lean into, like our call center experience.
Speaker C:You know, maybe on the surface, like people think about call centers.
Speaker C:And yes, people have been working in call centers for a while.
Speaker C:For us, we're also now bringing that to our store.
Speaker C:And so when you call our store, how, you know, they've been helping us with that, how does that experience continue to evolve?
Speaker C:Similarly, we are working with, like, routing intelligence.
Speaker C:If you think about when we go to deliver a product, how do we better know if there's a gate to deal with or, you know, a narrow road or something of that nature to where.
Speaker C:Where we have a higher likelihood of success on that delivery?
Speaker C:That's an area that they're helping us with.
Speaker C:So there's probably like three or four different use cases that are highlighted in that announcement.
Speaker C:Magic Apron is one that we're very excited about.
Speaker C:It's been on our site for a while, but now with the latest technology, we're continuing to evolve that, and we're even now bringing it into store with their partnership.
Speaker C:And so, you know, we're piloting in a few stores.
Speaker C:Stores what, you know, a store localized agent that can help you shop in the store as well.
Speaker C:And it's great to see that next evolution too.
Speaker B:Magic Apron.
Speaker C:Yes.
Speaker B:All right.
Speaker A:I imagine then that some of those tools, in partnership with Google you mentioned, Gemini, are shaping how your teams are leveraging AI.
Speaker A:And this is kind of a question that we like to ask people, because you've already given some examples.
Speaker A:But this, this question really, I think, gives us a sense of what's been most impactful in your organization.
Speaker A:But what has been the biggest change that you've seen in your team from utilizing AI in some way, shape or form, like, what's made the most impact for you?
Speaker C:We're definitely seeing improvements in the speed at which we can go from ideation to code to, you know, from ideation to concept to code to implement.
Speaker B:Okay.
Speaker C:You know, AI, really, if I just focus on the discipline of software development, like it helps throughout the life cycle and testing and everything.
Speaker C:And so we see that that is real and we feel that, and we see that.
Speaker C:And then you just think about the underlying data and how much.
Speaker C:Now, you know, I spoke some about delivery.
Speaker C: used to only have, let's say,: Speaker C:So it's definitely also been a benefit to the user experience that we bring to life and for things like delivery that maybe you wouldn't think about.
Speaker B:Yeah, right, right, right.
Speaker B:So you are, gosh, you've been a busy, busy, busy bee here at this show.
Speaker B:I mean, no better way to put it.
Speaker B:But you're on stage too, right?
Speaker B:So you guys made a Google announcement.
Speaker B:You're on stage already.
Speaker C:We, I had the opportunity to meet with PayPal Fiona Tam from Wayfair and do a session with them.
Speaker B:Oh my gosh, that's hitters.
Speaker B:You guys are hitting.
Speaker C:Yes, absolutely.
Speaker B:You guys are hitters.
Speaker B:So tell us, like, what'd you share with the audience?
Speaker B:For those that are maybe back at home who wish they could be here, that's number one.
Speaker B:Let's start there.
Speaker C:I think obviously one big question in the industry right now is agentic commerce.
Speaker C:What does it mean?
Speaker C:How does it come to life?
Speaker C:And, you know, so a lot of the question was just that, how do we think about it as retailers from Fiona and I, how does PayPal think about it from their perspective as being a partner in this and kind of what are our predictions on how it will continue to shape?
Speaker C:I mean, the main message, you know, that I feel like was consistent is that this is absolutely, absolutely for us, not a time to sit back and wait.
Speaker C:It's a time to be out front and learn.
Speaker C:And so we are learning in multiple different ways.
Speaker C:So what do I mean by that?
Speaker C:Like, you can think about agentic commerce on our own property.
Speaker C:If you go and interact with Magic Apron, it can help you with project lists, it can help you with questions and things of that nature.
Speaker C:We can get it all the way to, you know, we'll continue to grow that to helping you actually transact that's on our properties.
Speaker C:And then you think about how is it going to come to life on other properties, on the discovery properties.
Speaker C:And you know, there's a big conversation around, you know, how far will the consumer go on that front?
Speaker C:We know there's research that will happen there.
Speaker C:We know there's knowledge that will happen there.
Speaker C:What does the transition from that to transaction look like?
Speaker C:And you know, the big thing for us right now is that we don't feel like we have the crystal ball, but we want to be out front learning and have these opportunities started lit up with multiple different partners so we can understand what the customer's most going to gravitate to.
Speaker B:Angie, you mentioned the word agent to get the start of that.
Speaker B:So I'm curious, I want to ask you too.
Speaker B:Because it's funny that you brought that up because this is going to be.
Speaker B:My next question is like my early thoughts, I've only been here like three or four hours.
Speaker B:My early thoughts are that agentic is going to be the word of the show.
Speaker B:Would you agree with that or are you here looking and taking in the show with a different approach or a different lens?
Speaker B:Explain how you're approaching this show.
Speaker C:You know, honestly for me, I look at this show through a spectrum of different lenses.
Speaker C:Yeah, please.
Speaker C:I have so many.
Speaker C:Our teams have so much responsibility through the supply chain and you can get into robotics and things of that nature as well as our in store experience.
Speaker A:Experience.
Speaker C:And so, you know, I wouldn't say I'm here just through the lens of agentic.
Speaker C:It's definitely a hot topic across and we're definitely here to understand the use cases people have brought to life with it.
Speaker C:But I think first and foremost we're staying grounded in what are those priorities.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker C:That we need to solve for the company and the opportunities and partners out there that can help us on that.
Speaker A:Well, Angie, I want to close with.
Speaker A: self that you accomplished in: Speaker C:We have a lot of great work through the business continuing to support our pro and gaining greater share of wallet for our pro customer.
Speaker C:We also have a lot of focus on interconnected retail as well as our supply chain and delivery experiences.
Speaker C:All three of those and a multitude of others just have a tremendous opportunity set with technology how we can continue to remove friction, delight our customers, et cetera.
Speaker C:So we're really excited about the opportunity to make progress on that.
Speaker C:We're really excited about the opportunity to continue to improve how we build software and continue to refactor, if you will, the software development life cycle.
Speaker C:But there's a lot, you know, to be excited about in the year ahead for sure.
Speaker A:Great.
Speaker B:Well, yeah, Angie, thank you so much.
Speaker B:Thank you.
Speaker B:This has been great.
Speaker B:Thanks for the for joining us for the first time.
Speaker B:Like Ann said.
Speaker B:Hopefully we'll have you back soon and thanks to Views.
Speaker B:To Viewsion.
Speaker B:I gotta get used to saying that.
Speaker B:Antivusion for sponsoring our coverage here at the show.
Speaker B:We're here all week long.
Speaker B: Booth: Speaker B:Stop on by, say hello.
Speaker B:We've had a bunch of people already stop in.
Speaker B:Melts our hearts whenever you do that.
Speaker B:So please keep on coming by and until next time, Ann, be careful out there.