Kingfisher and Google Cloud Partner to Boost AI-Powered Shopping Across UK and Europe

Kingfisher to deploy Vertex AI across e-commerce platforms to enable more intuitive, conversational shopping experiences.

Mar. 18, 2026 at 10:12am

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Kingfisher plc, a leading international home improvement company, and Google Cloud have announced a multi-year partnership to significantly improve the online shopping experience for Kingfisher's customers using advanced AI technology. Through this strategic investment in Google Cloud's Vertex AI, Kingfisher will move beyond traditional keyword search on its sites, including B&Q, Castorama France and Poland, and Brico Dépôt France, and toward enabling proactive, AI-driven shopping assistants to help customers plan home improvement projects, generate smart shopping lists, and execute seamless purchases.

Why it matters

This partnership aligns with modern shopper behavior, delivering faster and more precise search results while unlocking Kingfisher's extensive product and data catalogs to build proactive AI shopping agents. It positions Kingfisher at the forefront of AI-powered shopping, helping the company meet rapidly evolving customer needs and fuel its ongoing digital transformation and omnichannel growth.

The details

Kingfisher is upgrading to Vertex AI Search for Commerce, moving from rigid keywords to intuitive, conversational discovery. Early trials at B&Q have already shown meaningful results. The partnership will also help Kingfisher build proactive AI shopping agents that can empower customers with their capability to plan complex home improvement projects, generate smart shopping lists, and execute seamless purchases.

  • Kingfisher and Google Cloud announced the multi-year partnership on March 18, 2026.
  • Kingfisher's in-house AI platform, Athena, launched in 2023 to power virtual assistants like Hello Casto and Hello B&Q.

The players

Kingfisher plc

A leading international home improvement company with over 1,700 stores and more than 70,000 colleagues, operating in seven countries across Europe under retail banners including B&Q, Castorama, Brico Dépôt, Screwfix, TradePoint and Koçtaş.

Google Cloud

The new way to the cloud, providing AI, infrastructure, developer, data, security, and collaboration tools built for today and tomorrow. Google Cloud offers a powerful, fully integrated and optimized AI stack with its own planet-scale infrastructure, custom-built chips, generative AI models and development platform, as well as AI-powered applications, to help organizations transform.

Thierry Garnier

CEO of Kingfisher plc.

Matt Renner

President and Chief Revenue Officer at Google Cloud.

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What they’re saying

“Through this partnership with Google Cloud, we are enabling our customers to search for and buy home improvement products with AI—delivering a fully personalised and easy shopping experience. These investments put Kingfisher at the forefront of AI-powered shopping, delivering meaningful innovation as part of our expanding digital ecosystem, and helping us to meet rapidly evolving customer needs.”

— Thierry Garnier, CEO of Kingfisher plc

“Kingfisher is setting a new standard for how retailers can use innovative cloud solutions to solve complex customer problems. By integrating Google Cloud's Vertex AI and preparing its data for an agentic future, they are creating truly helpful, conversational shopping experiences. We are proud to be a part of Kingfisher's digital transformation across the UK and Europe.”

— Matt Renner, President and Chief Revenue Officer at Google Cloud

What’s next

The partnership is already delivering results, with e-commerce accounting for more than 20% of Kingfisher's Group sales as of Q3 ended 31 October 2025. Kingfisher will continue to work closely with Google's Ads and Shopping teams to improve online performance, supported by the modernization of Nucleus, Kingfisher's central data lake.

The takeaway

This partnership positions Kingfisher as a leader in AI-powered shopping, leveraging Google Cloud's cutting-edge technology to create more intuitive, conversational, and personalized experiences for its customers across the UK and Europe. It demonstrates how retailers can harness the power of AI and cloud computing to transform their digital capabilities and better meet the evolving needs of modern shoppers.