Ulta Partners With Google Gemini To Power Agentic AI For Beauty Shoppers

BusinessRetailUlta Partners With Google Gemini To Power Agentic AI For Beauty ShoppersByPamela N. Danziger,Senior Contributor.Forbes contributors publish independent expert analyses and insights. Pam Danziger reports on retail, focused on the luxury consumer market.Follow AuthorApr 22, 2026, 01:58pm EDT--:-- / --:--This voice experience is generated by AI. Learn more.This voice experience is generated by AI. Learn more.SummaryAgentic AI poses an existential threat to retailers by mediating consumer decisions. Ulta Beauty is proactively integrating Google's Gemini AI into its website and app, and extending its catalog across Google's platforms. This partnership aims to create seamless, personalized shopping experiences, giving Ulta a competitive edge in the beauty market by engaging customers earlier in their discovery journey.Show More “The next era of commerce will be shaped by how well retailers turn AI into practical, scalable capabilities,” said Mike Maresca, Ulta’s chief technology and transformation officer.Courtesy of Ulta BeautyAgentic AI represents an existential threat to retailers. It’s poised not just to disrupt the customer relationship, but to disintermediate it entirely. McKinsey warns that agents increasingly mediate key consumer decisions, “reshaping how intent forms, how products are discovered, and where value pools can be found.” The use of generative AI as a shopping assistant is reaching critical mass. Bain’s Consumer Lab finds that between 30% to 45% of American consumers now turn to agents, like ChatGPT, Perplexity and Gemini, for research, comparisons and product guidance.Ulta Beauty isn’t sitting idly by waiting for external AI agents to make beauty decisions for customers. It is getting ahead of the curve in partnership with Google to embed Gemini directly into its Ulta.com website and Ulta Beauty app, as well as extend its product catalog across Google search, shopping and its Gemini AI-driven discovery platform. “The next era o...