Canadian Tire streamlines tire shopping with AI-powered assistant

Canadian Tire Corporation launched an AI-powered virtual assistant, CeeTee, to help customers choose the right tires online, address product selection friction, and improve the digital retail journey. Developed in partnership with Microsoft and built on Azure OpenAI Service using GPT-4, CeeTee provides customers with a conversational experience, allowing recommendations, stock checks, and personalized product guidance through voice or text within the Canadian Tire app. The retailer undertook extensive user testing and built privacy safeguards, ensuring all interactions are anonymized and grounded solely in product data. Since its March launch, nearly 10,000 users engaged in 700,000 chat sessions, improving experience and increasing efficiency for tire buyers navigating complex options. The deployment is part of a broader AI strategy, with CTC already leveraging Azure for analytics, automation, and employee productivity tools. Early customer feedback indicates higher satisfaction, convenience, and a ‘consultative seller’ experience online. Canadian Tire intends to extend this approach to additional product categories. The CeeTee project followed a measured roll-out with ongoing studies to analyze use and impact, but initial metrics indicate both improved user self-service for tire selection and positioning Canadian Tire as an AI innovator in retail. CeeTee’s launch coincides with CTC and Microsoft’s seven-year partnership to advance digital and AI-enabled experiences in Canada’s retail sector.