Hole Inc. is increasing its use of AI, knowledge, and automation throughout its advertising and marketing operations, overlaying marketing campaign planning, personalisation, and execution throughout its manufacturers.
The corporate introduced the initiative on the Cannes Lions Worldwide Competition of Creativity. It’s working with Google Cloud, Zeta International, and Publicis Sapient on the trouble, which covers its model portfolio, together with Hole, Outdated Navy, Banana Republic, and Athleta.
The initiative covers Hole’s shared advertising and marketing organisation throughout its model portfolio. It contains buyer knowledge, content material, owned channels, and e-commerce.
Hole mentioned the initiative is meant to scale back silos throughout its advertising and marketing organisation and provides groups higher entry to knowledge. Damon Berger, senior vice chairman for advertising and marketing shared companies at Hole Inc., mentioned AI is getting used to help technique, storytelling, and buyer interactions.
Constructing the information layer
Google Cloud is offering the information and AI layer for the undertaking. Hole introduced its multi-year Google Cloud settlement in October 2025 and is utilizing the corporate’s know-how to convey collectively buyer and product intelligence.
The work builds on that settlement, which was designed to help AI use throughout Outdated Navy, Hole, Banana Republic, and Athleta, together with e-commerce, product creation, and buyer expertise.
The retailer plans to make use of that basis to help personalisation, decision-making, and steady studying throughout content material, activations, and e-commerce. The broader partnership additionally provides Hole entry to Vertex AI, BigQuery, and Gemini.
Hole can also be utilizing Agent Studio, Agent Engine, Gemini, Nano Banana, and Veo for AI workflows and picture and video content material technology. The corporate didn’t present detailed output targets or price figures for the content material manufacturing work.
Beginning with owned channels
The rollout will start with Hole’s owned advertising and marketing channels, the place Zeta International will help the event of an AI-powered advertising and marketing stack. These channels embrace Hole’s e-commerce websites, apps, emails, loyalty communications, and different direct buyer messaging.
Zeta International is supporting the retailer’s owned advertising and marketing channels by Athena by Zeta. The platform is designed to attach buyer knowledge, selections, and marketing campaign execution, together with viewers technique, artistic improvement, activation, and optimisation.
Hole mentioned Athena’s agentic capabilities will help decision-making throughout viewers technique, artistic improvement, marketing campaign activation, and optimisation.
Hole mentioned the work will help extra personalised experiences and quicker marketing campaign supply throughout key advertising and marketing channels.
Publicis Sapient is supporting the broader implementation throughout expertise, course of, know-how, knowledge, and accomplice programs. Its work contains connecting content material, commerce, activation, and buyer indicators as a part of Hole’s advertising and marketing working mannequin.
Hole CTO Sven Gerjets mentioned the corporate is utilizing knowledge, AI, and agentic capabilities to raised perceive buyer intent and enhance how groups work throughout its model portfolio.
Linking advertising and marketing to commerce
Hole’s Workplace of AI launched new buying applied sciences in March, together with personalised match steerage and help for Google’s Common Commerce Protocol. The corporate additionally launched extra personalised buying options in the course of the 2025 vacation season, together with curated trend-based suggestions and a digital assistant throughout its e-commerce websites and apps.
In March, Hole mentioned prospects would be capable to uncover and purchase merchandise by AI Mode in Google Search and the Gemini app, utilizing Google’s Common Commerce Protocol. The protocol is designed to let AI programs connect with service provider checkout flows and full transactions inside conversational interfaces.
Hole has additionally labored with Daring Metrics on personalised match steerage for measurement suggestions inside AI-enabled buying interfaces.
The identical Google Cloud partnership additionally covers product improvement, buyer expertise, and worker decision-making. Hole has mentioned AI instruments are getting used throughout components of the product-to-market course of, together with design, planning, and pricing.
The undertaking comes as Hole continues to prioritise know-how funding. In its first quarter of 2026, the corporate reported its ninth consecutive quarter of optimistic comparable gross sales.
In fiscal Q1 2026, Hole reported internet gross sales of US$3.50 billion, up 1.0% yr over yr. Retailer gross sales rose 3%, whereas on-line gross sales fell 2%.
On-line gross sales represented 38% of complete internet gross sales within the quarter. Comparable gross sales on the Hole model helped offset smaller features at Outdated Navy and Banana Republic, whereas Athleta reported an 11% decline.
Hole president and CEO Richard Dickson mentioned on the corporate’s earnings name that know-how stays considered one of its funding priorities. Dickson described Hole as a “brand-led and intelligence powered” style firm.
He mentioned knowledge and AI are getting used to assist groups make selections with better consistency and effectivity. He additionally mentioned Hole is utilizing product intelligence to enhance the way it designs, buys, allocates, and replenishes stock.
Hole additionally relaunched its loyalty programme, Encore, in the course of the quarter. The programme covers Outdated Navy, Hole, Banana Republic, and Athleta, and contains entry, content material, experiences, and rewards throughout the corporate’s manufacturers.
Loyalty communications are among the many owned channels included within the advertising and marketing rollout. Encore provides Hole one other direct buyer channel tied to its broader work throughout advertising and marketing, e-commerce, and buyer engagement.
(Picture by lan deng)
See additionally: Warner Bros Discovery expands agentic AI use in advert shopping for
Wish to be taught extra about AI and large knowledge from trade leaders? Take a look at AI & Massive Information Expo happening in Amsterdam, California, and London. The great occasion is a part of TechEx and is co-located with different main know-how occasions, click on right here for extra info.
Advertising and marketing Tech Information is powered by TechForge Media. Discover different upcoming enterprise know-how occasions and webinars right here.
