Make getting help with a home project feel less like searching a catalog and more like asking someone who knows.
Lowe's / Mylow
The problem
Home improvement is a knowledge problem before it is a shopping problem. Most customers don’t know what to search for yet.
The decision
Ask before you answer. Start with what the customer is trying to do, and let the products follow.
What shipped
Mylow, Lowe’s AI home improvement assistant, on the product pages and in the store.
What changed
A customer can explain what they’re trying to do, and Lowe’s helps them figure out what they need.
What I carry forward
Nobody should have to learn how to talk to an AI before it helps them.
The decision
A blank chat box is intimidating. Starting points shaped like real home improvement needs show what Mylow can do.
The right advice depends on the project, the home and the person. Short follow-up questions gather that context one step at a time, and each one makes the next response more relevant.
Advice alone isn’t enough. Products appear inside the guidance, with the reason they fit, so the conversation ends in a next step and not in another search.
A closer look
Mylow on lowes.com in September 2026, from Andy’s own account, and Mylow In Store on the phone
A way in before a word is typedA photo, a voice, an account question: the first move is offered, so the customer never faces an empty box.It knows where you areRecent orders sit inside the conversation. The context is already there, so nobody has to explain themselves.A conversation resumesThe last two projects wait at the bottom. Help for a home is rarely one question long.
Received, and said soA check beside the question. The customer knows it landed before anything comes back.The wait has a nameIt says “Thinking” instead of going quiet. A named wait is one people are willing to sit through.The record is offered firstA copy of the transcript is on offer before the answer arrives, so nothing said here is lost.
Every pick carries its reasonEach mower is named with what it is for, its rating and how many reviews stand behind it. The evidence arrives with the advice.The facts a decision needsPrice, what you save, whether it is in stock, pickup or delivery: on the card, not three clicks away.Shop without leaving the answerAdd to cart, or read the details. The conversation is the aisle.A limit, said plainly: the first two products shown were not in stock at the store that day. The screenshot is as it was, not tidied.
It meets you at the doorA card on the lock screen when the customer walks in: the map, a code, the scanner and voice, one tap each.The map can be askedOn the store map, three ways to start: seasonal maintenance, deals for this customer, or anything at all.A price tag becomes an answerScan the tag on the shelf and the product comes back with its rating, and the offer to scan the next one.The challenge
People arrive with a photo of something broken, a symptom without a diagnosis, or a project they have never attempted. Ecommerce works once you know what you want. Most customers don’t yet, and the store’s language of categories and part names stands between them and the answer.
As a Lead Product Designer on Mylow, Lowe’s AI-powered home improvement assistant, I worked with product and engineering to turn generative AI into something useful, understandable and recognizably Lowe’s. Much of the work wasn’t screens. It was deciding how an assistant should behave: when to ask, when to answer, when to show a product, and what to do when the customer changes direction.
What changed
Evidence and limits
Lowe’s has always been known for home improvement expertise. Mylow puts that expertise into the digital experience at the moment a customer is unsure. The value is designed to follow the customer: less uncertainty, more confidence in what they choose, and a shorter path from question to action.
Starts from what the customer is trying to do, not a search term; brings products into the answer with the reason they fit; leaves a next step on the screen. These are capabilities, not measured effects.
Whether it worked in numbers. I work at Lowe’s, and Mylow’s figures are confidential; this case describes what the design is meant to change.
As announced by Lowe’sPress release: Lowe’s launches Mylow (March 5, 2025)Lowe’s newsroom: Meet MylowLowes.com: AI at Lowe’s
What’s next
Where this goes is not a bigger chatbot, but assistance wherever understanding a customer’s intent makes the experience more helpful. Home improvement isn’t naturally text, either: often the easiest way to explain a problem is to show it.
