When Marvin Ellison arrived at Lowe’s in 2018, the home-improvement retailer was still operating with what he describes as “binders and whiteboards.” For a company running thousands of stores across the US, the workflows were traditional, manual and increasingly mismatched with the scale of its operations. Seven years later, Lowe’s is deep into an AI-driven transformation that touches merchandising, supply chain, customer support, internal engineering and the company’s e-commerce experience. But even as Lowe’s aggressively deploys AI, Ellison maintains that the technology is not part of a plan to cut jobs.
Speaking at Morgan Stanley’s Consumer and Retail Conference, Ellison made an unusually clear distinction that sets Lowe’s apart from other large retailers experimenting with automation. “Rather than thinking about it solely as a job replacement tool, how do you think about reducing someone’s workload by 50%?” he said. In Ellison’s view, AI should strip away repetitive work like emails, spreadsheet building, back-and-forth vendor communication that consumes a disproportionate amount of time for corporate teams. Freed from those tasks, he believes employees can reinvest that time into initiatives that directly grow the business.
For merchants, this means using AI to automate the kind of administrative work that keeps them away from store visits, supplier negotiations and product strategies. For store associates, it means faster access to product data, inventory status and project guidance so they can help customers more effectively. “AI resources enable store employees to be more helpful on the sales floor,” Ellison said, emphasizing that the goal is productivity, not labor reduction.
Internally, Lowe’s is applying AI to the infrastructure that powers its digital and operational teams. Ellison noted that even the development of its own technology stack is becoming more efficient with AI-assisted coding and automated approval workflows. These tools shorten the time it takes engineers to build and deploy new systems with speed that becomes essential as the company modernizes its retail backbone.
In customer-facing channels, Lowe’s most visible AI deployment is the Mylow chatbot integrated into its mobile app. Mylow handles more than basic navigational help. Ellison described how, during Thanksgiving, customers turned to the bot for troubleshooting assistance, asking questions such as, “My stove is not working. It will not heat.” The system was able to guide them through steps to diagnose the issue. “Luckily, we were able to give them some really good advice on things they can do to check to determine how they can repair,” he said. The episode demonstrated the breadth of queries AI can manage, far beyond directing someone to the aisle for shampoo and underlined the role of AI as an always-available support layer for customers facing urgent household problems.
Yet Lowe’s AI expansion hasn’t come only from the top down. Earlier this year, the company hosted an internal “AI Day,” a full-scale initiative that included hackathons, prototype demonstrations and cross-functional collaboration. As described in the company’s newsroom, the event was designed to immerse employees in AI tools and encourage them to bring forward ideas that could later scale across departments. For Ellison, this serves two purposes: accelerating innovation and ensuring employees feel ownership over the tools reshaping their workflows.
AI has also become a strategic pillar of Lowe’s supply chain operations, an area Ellison consistently points to as one of the company’s most complex systems. Lowe’s has partnered with NVIDIA and Palantir to build real-time, data-driven models that track disruptions and help stores adjust inventory before problems spread. NVIDIA highlighted the partnership on X, explaining how accelerated computing allows Lowe’s to anticipate supply chain issues rather than simply react. Ellison said the system has effectively created an “intelligent system” spanning thousands of stores that improves resilience without reducing the staff needed to manage and operate those locations.
This emphasis on maintaining jobs is notable given the economic pressure the retailer is facing. According to The Street, Lowe’s comparable sales in the third quarter of 2025 grew just 0.4%, and foot traffic saw a slight decline. Ellison attributed the softness to shifting customer behavior in an uncertain economic environment. Home-improvement spending has cooled from pandemic highs, and high interest rates have pushed many households to postpone renovation projects.
Instead of leaning on AI to justify job reductions, Lowe’s is relying on technology to contain costs and sharpen execution. Automating back-office work, improving forecasting and strengthening digital engagement provide operational efficiencies without eliminating roles. Ellison has repeatedly underscored that the company views workforce stability as essential, especially during periods when consumers are more selective with spending.
Across retail, AI’s impact on jobs remains a topic of debate. Walmart CEO Doug McMillon, speaking in September, said AI is “going to change literally every job,” a sentiment widely shared by industry leaders. Walmart CFO John David Rainey echoed the point at the same Morgan Stanley conference where Ellison spoke. Rainey compared AI’s rise to the arrival of Microsoft Excel decades ago which was transformational, but contingent on workers learning how to leverage it. “The best performers were those that learned it the most and used it to perform their job,” he said. He added that while some roles may eventually disappear, others will emerge around the new capabilities.
Home Depot, Lowe’s chief competitor, is also leaning on AI to strengthen performance. A Hardware Retailing analysis of their quarterly call highlighted how Home Depot uses AI to support pro customer initiatives, streamline digital sales and assist associates with inventory lookups and product decisions. Both retailers are converging on a strategy where AI is less about replacing staff and more about tightening operations in a slow-demand environment.
Lowe’s is also applying generative AI to its e-commerce platform. As reported by Digital Commerce 360, the retailer uses AI to personalize product recommendations, identify potential next purchases and surface relevant project bundles based on a customer’s previous shopping behavior. This helps compensate for moderating in-store sales by growing digital conversion and improving customer satisfaction. Internally, these tools give associates structured insights they can use in conversations with customers who arrive in-store after browsing online.
For younger workers entering the industry, Ellison has been vocal about where he sees long-term opportunity. In a separate interview, he encouraged them to pursue skilled trades and customer-facing roles which are areas where hands-on expertise, problem-solving and interpersonal communication remain essential. “Stay close to the customers because you will always have employment opportunities to grow,” says Ellison.
