Home Depot replaces phone menus with AI voice agent for faster customer support
Home Depot is retiring its traditional phone menu system and replacing it with an AI voice agent that resolves customer calls four times faster, the company announced this week.
Instead of navigating through numbered options, customers can now describe their issue in their own words. The AI agent determines the reason for the call in under 10 seconds and routes them accordingly.
The system, built on AI for Customer Support, handles common tasks from start to finish: checking order status, confirming product availability, providing store information, and processing purchases over the phone.
What the AI agent can do
The voice agent analyzes customer descriptions of their projects and builds a ready-to-buy shopping cart with real-time inventory. It can text product links, initiate service requests, and complete purchases without human intervention.
The system includes real-time translation for multilingual support. Home Depot trained it on the company's product catalog and proprietary knowledge, ensuring recommendations align with what's actually in stock.
A direct path to a human associate remains available for customers who need it.
How it started
Home Depot piloted the system in 50 stores before rolling it out company-wide. In those locations, store associates reported higher job satisfaction because they spent less time on phone calls and more time helping in-store shoppers.
The company plans to expand the system to all U.S. stores over the next year.
The technology runs on Google Gemini for Customer Experience, powered by Gemini's conversational AI audio models. Jordan Broggi, executive vice president of customer experience and president of online at Home Depot, said the shift reflects a broader move from "please listen to these options" to "how can I help?"
For customer support teams, this represents a working example of how AI Agents & Automation handle high-volume inquiries while keeping human support available for complex issues.
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