When Costco CFO Richard Galanti confirmed during the company's March 2025 earnings call that it was "still in the early innings" of AI adoption, he was definitely understating. Behind this conservative framing lies a sophisticated, multifaceted strategy where AI becomes a tool for refining operations already defined by efficiency, not a transformative technology requiring wholesale business model reinvention.
"We've had third-party AI companies, large companies, including ones that are headquartered in Seattle, come out and talk to us," Galanti stated, adding that Costco was "doing with working with IT and our CEO and our heads of operations and merchandising to see where and how it might fit." Rather than chasing AI for its own sake, Costco is evaluating use cases with precision, a philosophy that reflects the company's disciplined capital allocation and member-first ethos.
Current CEO Ron Vachris reinforced this philosophy with characteristic bluntness, "AI is also being interwoven into our business where we believe it can strengthen our model. We're approaching it in a very Costco way, practical, member-focused and grounded in tangible business value."
