The End of the Search Bar
Bunnings Buddy shows why retail AI is less about chatbots and more about owning customer intent.
Generative AI in hardware retail is shifting the battleground from product search to project ownership.
Bunnings, Home Depot, Lowe’s and Kingfisher are all trying to turn messy customer intent into advice, baskets and loyalty.
The board question is no longer “Do we have AI?” but “Where does AI now stand between our brand promise and the customer?”
Your customer does not want a drill. They want the hole. Or the shelf. Or the deck. Or the repaired hinge. Or the Saturday project that does not collapse into three extra trips, a YouTube rabbit hole and a fight in the garage.
That is why Bunnings’ new AI assistant, Buddy, is more interesting than the usual “retailer launches chatbot” headline. Bunnings says Buddy can help customers find products, check local stock and get advice for their next project; it sits just to the right of the search bar, which is symbolically perfect.
Because Buddy is not just another search feature. It is a test of whether Bunnings can digitise one of the most valuable things in hardware retail: the moment where a half-formed customer problem becomes a confident shopping basket.
Bunnings is refreshingly upfront that Buddy is still imperfect. Its own site says Buddy is powered by AI and “at times won’t get things exactly right,” and that its answers are based on the Bunnings website, the Workshop community and broader world knowledge. That caveat is the story.
The future of AI in retail is not a neat vendor case study with a perfect box on top. It is a live experiment in trust.
Think about your own business. Where has AI already started speaking on behalf of your brand; in customer service, sales, product advice, search, onboarding, support, legal, HR or investor communications? That is the question I would take to the next executive meeting.
Below I unpack why this matters for the CEO, CMO, board and customer, and why hardware retail may be one of the clearest early tests of whether AI can create real commercial advantage rather than just a better FAQ.
