Loblaw Companies approach to personalisation pays off as Canadian retailer taps generative and agentic AI

Thanks to the rise of generative and agentic AI, we’ve entered the era of truly individualised retail. So says Lauren Steinberg, EVP, Chief Digital Officer at Loblaw Companies.

In a LinkedIn post, she said: "If we're honest, most personalisation out there today is just segmentation. But our p13n team at Loblaw Digital has rewritten the rules, not slotting people into buckets, but building for one person at a time, in real-time."

"Six months ago, our new approach to personalisation wasn’t just a technical stretch, it was cost prohibitive. But thanks to the rapid evolution of AI, both the tech and the economics have finally caught up to our ambition."

Now, when an authenticated customer visits PC Express, an LLM assembles their individual profile using historical transactional and behavioural data. That profile infers things like family size, dietary preferences, lifestyle traits; even how adventurous their palate might be.

And from there, agents generate themes based on intent. An abstraction engine links those themes to product concepts. A vector search layer finds real SKUs that match the abstract. The retailer's reco engine re-ranks the outputs based on personal affinity.

All of this happens before the customer has even scrolled. In that instant, the page is composed, built just for them, with personalised carousels, one to one product recommendations, and dynamic curated content like shoppable recipes.

As a result, add-to-carts are up 3.82%, bounce rate is down 16.03%, conversion rate up 3.25%, and average order value up by $3.

Steinberg concluded: "I don’t say this lightly, but I genuinely don’t think many teams, even globally, are doing this kind of work in digital retail right now. What this team has pulled off is bold, technically brilliant, and deeply customer centric. I’m so proud of them.”

“And this is just the beginning. Thanks to generative and agentic AI, we’ve entered the era of truly individualised retail. And it’s so much more than calling you by your first name."

RTIH AI in Retail Awards

RTIH, organiser of the industry leading RTIH Innovation Awards, proudly brings you the first edition of the RTIH AI in Retail Awards, which is now open for entries. 

As we witness a digital transformation revolution across all channels, AI tools are reshaping the omnichannel game, from personalising customer experiences to optimising inventory, uncovering insights into consumer behaviour, and enhancing the human element of retailers' businesses.

With 2025 set to be the year when AI and especially gen AI shake off the ‘heavily hyped’ tag and become embedded in retail business processes, our newly launched awards celebrate global technology innovation in a fast moving omnichannel world and the resulting benefits for retailers, shoppers and employees.

Our 2025 winners will be those companies who not only recognise the potential of AI, but also make it usable in everyday work - resulting in more efficiency and innovation in all areas.

Winners will be announced at an evening event at The Barbican in Central London on Wednesday, 3rd September.

This will kick off with a drinks reception in the stunning Conservatory, followed by a three course meal, and awards ceremony in the Garden Room.

Please email our Editor, Scott Thompson, if you have any questions or need further information: scott.thompson@retailtechinnovationhub.com

Key 2025 dates

Friday, 18th July: Award entry deadline 

Tuesday, 22nd July: 2025 finalists revealed

Wednesday, 23rd July - Friday, 8th August: Judging days

Wednesday, 3rd September: Winners announced at the 2025 RTIH AI in Retail Awards Ceremony, to be held at The Barbican in Central London.