Guiding shoppers into a retail AI assistant
Turning a blank chat box into guided, one-tap entry points — and testing where the assistant should live before a 100% rollout.
Where shoppers got stuck
[Where the assistant lives in the DICK'S experience, who uses it, and why the launch mattered to the business.]
How might we help shoppers start a useful AI conversation without knowing what to type?
How I found the answer
Randomized task test
n=20 · 3 search placements · time-to-find, dead clicks and heatmaps
Preference comparison
Side-by-side review of the placements to hear why shoppers preferred one
- [Which placement shoppers found fastest]
- [Where dead clicks clustered and why]
- [What shoppers said in the preference comparison]
From insight to interface
Discover
[How shoppers used the free-text box today]
Define
[Which agents and prompt categories to surface]
Design
Curated, tappable prompt system with one-tap continuation
Test
Two-part entry-point study to choose the rollout placement
What shipped
Curated prompt chips
Tappable prompts replace the blank text box and route to the right underlying agent.
One-tap continuation
Shoppers keep the conversation going without typing.
Tested entry point
The placement chosen by the study shipped to 100% of users.
What changed
Average AI sessions grew from 20 to 140 after rollout.
“[Add a quote from a stakeholder or test participant]”
What I took away
- [What you learned about guiding AI entry]
- [What you would test next]