Home Depot has built on Google Cloud since 2015. Like many other retailers, the company saw a spike in its digital channels due to the pandemic, as well as changes in the interactions between digital channels, customers, stores, and associates. All told, digital sales were up 86 percent in 2020. Late last year, Home Depot’s SVP of IT, Fahim Siddiqui, told ZDNet how the company responded to the pandemic. One key effort revolved around standing up curbside pickup quickly. “We did not offer by curbside pickup before all of this happened, but we were able to in a very agile manner, build a solution,” he said. “The first solution was really in a matter of few hours.” As it extends its partnership with Google Cloud, the Home Depot is using the cloud provider’s AI capabilities and tools like BigQuery to implement more flexible assortment planning and predictive inventory management and to gain more robust logistical insights. The company also uses Google Cloud AI capabilities to enable the voice search feature in The Home Depot app.
