Batteries Plus is deploying three AI tools across its more than 800 locations, targeting franchise development, customer calls, and in-store product search. Full rollout is expected by the end of September 2026. For customer support teams, the move signals how retailers are automating routine inquiries while building escalation paths to human staff.
What the three tools do
Savannah handles franchise development. Prospective owners can call the AI voice agent with questions about the Batteries Plus franchising opportunity. After each call, the caller receives an email with a company overview, a franchise application link, and a discovery call already on the calendar. Savannah also has outbound prospecting and SMS capabilities and complies with applicable regulations.
Edison answers customer calls to stores. The voice assistant fields questions about store hours, directions using nearby landmarks, battery advice, and product or service inquiries. It works in English and Spanish, and it intercepts spam calls so associates don't waste time on them. For customers who don't want to talk to an AI assistant, Edison listens for keywords and phrases that signal a need to escalate the call to a human associate.
Wattson is an AI-based search tool connected to the Batteries Plus POS system. It helps store associates find products by stripping the drill-down process to only the questions that actually change the answer. If the solution is identical across a year, make, and model, the associate never sees the extra steps. The customer-facing website search was also simplified, showing additional specifications only when those details determine which battery a customer needs. Wattson launched with the automotive category and is live systemwide, with additional product categories rolling out through the end of the year, prioritized by sales volume.
Built on a multi-year infrastructure overhaul
For several years, Batteries Plus has been modernizing its enterprise architecture, moving core systems to a cloud-enabled, data-driven infrastructure. That work covered e-commerce, POS, payments, product information management, enterprise search, and partner integrations. In 2023, the company formed a Center of Excellence to explore generative AI applications in its business model.
"As a brand deeply rooted in the technology space, Batteries Plus is proud to be leading the charge in the age of AI," said Scott Williams, CEO of Batteries Plus. "This is not creating AI for the sake of breaking into the world of AI. This is creating tools that genuinely assist our entire proprietary business model, so that everyone from the corporate level to our store associates can work efficiently and confidently as the Experts in Charge dedicated to serving our customers."
Edison was developed in partnership with SynthFlow AI. The other tools combine vendor partners with in-house research. Headquartered in Hartland, Wisconsin, Batteries Plus is owned by Freeman Spogli.
Why this matters for customer support professionals
Edison's design reflects a pattern worth studying: the AI handles routine, high-volume inquiries like hours and directions, intercepts spam, and escalates to humans based on keywords and phrases detected in conversation. That division of labor is becoming standard in retail and call center environments. For teams evaluating similar tools, the key detail is the escalation trigger - an AI that only hands off when the customer signals frustration or a specific need, rather than routing every call through a human by default. It's a model that can reduce call volume without eliminating the human role. Professionals building or managing AI for customer support can look to Edison as an example of bilingual voice automation with a defined handoff path. Teams supervising call centers may also find relevant frameworks in an AI learning path for call center supervisors.
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