Mere months after Marvin Ellison became Lowe’s CEO in 2018, he hired Seemantini Godbole as chief information officer to help revamp the home-improvement retailer’s technologies.
“It was kind of shocking how behind we were from a technology perspective,” says Godbole, who took on the additional role of chief digital officer in 2022.
For much of her career, Godbole focused on making businesses more technologically savvy amid the rise of e-commerce. She worked at Travelocity when travel spending migrated from human agents to online, then joined Target in 2010, and held several tech leadership roles as competition ramped up with Amazon.
But at Lowe’s, ranked 49th on the Fortune 500, tech's structural issues were internal. In-store technologies and supply chain software were decades old, and Godbole worked quickly to upgrade those systems. She ditched inefficient self-checkout terminals from a third-party vendor, replacing them with a Lowe's-designed system that ditched a weight scale, included prompts to nudge shoppers to tack on an installation fee when buying a faucet, and the flexibility to accept more forms of payment, including Apple Pay.
Godbole also upgraded the company’s website and mobile app for greater distinctions between do-it-yourself home renovators, who need more educational recommendations, and professional contractors who want speedier reordering and liked having a dedicated page that tracks past purchases to make invoicing easier for their taxes. Additionally, Lowe’s deployed Zebra Technologies’ handheld devices to associates so they wouldn't have to go to a desktop computer to get updates on inventory replenishment, merchandising, and other in-store tasks.
All of these upgrades aligned with Godbole's focus on prioritizing updates to customer-facing technologies. Shoppers tend to visit home improvement stores less frequently than other brick-and-mortar retailers but also spend a lot more money as they remodel a kitchen or spruce up a bedroom. She wants to make that experience as smooth as possible.
For investments in generative AI, Godbole focuses on three core pillars: “How we shop,” which are customer-facing technologies; “how we sell,” for store associates; and “how we work,” for corporate employees. “We don’t want to give a pass to generative AI,” says Godbole. “We want to hold you to the same rigorous standards we have for all other digitization initiatives.”
That includes setting up privacy guardrails, like not allowing facial recognition in a new generative AI and computer vision tool called Dwell Alerts. Currently tested in 50 stores, Dwell identifies when customers are lingering in an aisle and sends a notification for employees to offer assistance.
Other generative AI applications include a Lowe’s version of ChatGPT that’s available through the Zebra devices at 14 stores and can answer customer questions like “what fertilizer should I use for my grass?” and “what’s the difference between premium paint and the cheaper option?” The company says 400 associates are testing the tool, which answers questions at 80% accuracy. Godbole wants that figure to improve to 85% to 90%.
One way Lowe’s is making generative AI accessible to customers is with the Style Your Space app, introduced in September. More than 300 images are uploaded each day by users who take photos of their kitchen or bathrooms to generate a visualization of the room with Lowe’s products that match decor styles like contemporary or mid-century modern.
This year, Godbole also started a pilot of Apple Vision Pro’s mixed-reality headsets in a handful of stores, helping shoppers visualize what a new kitchen would look like with an updated counter, backsplash, and new cabinets. She hopes this tool will make selling easier for associates.
“I’m really optimistic about what happens in those stores and then we’ll keep rolling it out,” says Godbole.
John Kell
This is the last CIO Intelligence for 2024. Thank you so much for reading the newsletter and wishing you happy holidays and a wonderful New Year. See you again in 2025.
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