Gap Inc. is expanding its use of AI, data, and automation across its marketing operations, the company announced at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity. The initiative, which covers the Gap, Old Navy, Banana Republic, and Athleta brands, is being built with Google Cloud, Zeta Global, and Publicis Sapient. It comes as Gap reports nine consecutive quarters of positive comparable sales, underscoring the retailer's prioritisation of technology investment.
The work spans Gap's shared marketing organisation, including customer data, content, owned channels, and e-commerce. The goal is to reduce silos across the marketing organisation and give teams better access to data. Damon Berger, senior vice president for marketing shared services, said AI is being used to support strategy, storytelling, and customer interactions.
Building the data layer
Google Cloud is providing the data and AI layer for the project, building on a multi-year agreement announced in October 2025. That deal was designed to support AI use across all four brands, including e-commerce, product creation, and customer experience. Gap plans to use that foundation for personalisation, decision-making, and continuous learning across content, activations, and e-commerce. The partnership gives Gap access to Vertex AI, BigQuery, and Gemini, as well as Agent Studio, Agent Engine, Nano Banana, and Veo for AI workflows and image and video content generation. Gap did not provide detailed output targets or cost figures for the content production work.
Starting with owned channels
The rollout will begin with Gap's owned marketing channels, where Zeta Global will support the development of an AI-driven marketing stack. Those channels include Gap's e-commerce sites, apps, emails, loyalty communications, and other direct customer messaging. Zeta Global's platform, Athena, is designed to connect customer data, decisions, and campaign execution. Athena's agentic capabilities will support decision-making across audience strategy, creative development, campaign activation, and optimisation.
Publicis Sapient is supporting the broader implementation across talent, process, technology, data, and partner systems. Its work includes connecting content, commerce, activation, and customer signals as part of Gap's marketing operating model. Gap CTO Sven Gerjets said the company is using data, AI, and agentic capabilities to better understand customer intent and improve how teams work across its brand portfolio.
Linking marketing to commerce
Gap's Office of AI introduced new shopping technologies in March, including personalised fit guidance and support for Google's Universal Commerce Protocol. Customers can now discover and buy products through AI Mode in Google Search and the Gemini app, using the protocol to connect AI systems to merchant checkout flows. Gap has also worked with Bold Metrics on personalised fit guidance for size recommendations within AI-enabled shopping interfaces. During the 2025 holiday season, the company introduced curated trend-based recommendations and a digital assistant across its e-commerce sites and apps.
The same Google Cloud partnership covers product development, customer experience, and employee decision-making. AI tools are being used across parts of the product-to-market process, including design, planning, and pricing. In fiscal Q1 2026, Gap reported net sales of US$3.50 billion, up 1.0% year over year. Store sales rose 3%, while online sales fell 2%, representing 38% of total net sales. Comparable sales at the Gap brand helped offset smaller gains at Old Navy and Banana Republic, while Athleta reported an 11% decline. President and CEO Richard Dickson said technology remains an investment priority. He described the company as "brand-led and intelligence powered" and said data and AI are helping teams make decisions with greater consistency and efficiency. Product intelligence is also improving how Gap designs, buys, allocates, and replenishes inventory.
Gap relaunched its loyalty programme, Encore, during the quarter. The programme covers Old Navy, Gap, Banana Republic, and Athleta, offering access, content, experiences, and rewards. Loyalty communications are among the owned channels included in the marketing rollout, giving Gap another direct customer channel tied to its broader work across marketing, e-commerce, and customer engagement.
Why this matters for marketers
Gap's move shows how AI is being woven into marketing operations beyond isolated experiments. The focus on owned channels and agentic AI for campaign management-from audience strategy to creative optimisation-points to a future where marketing teams can act faster and with more precision. The retailer's approach of using a shared data layer across brands and linking marketing activity directly to commerce offers a practical model for organisations trying to break down silos. For marketing managers, the shift toward AI-driven decision-making and content generation is not just a competitive advantage; it's quickly becoming table stakes.
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