Dick’s Sporting Goods Inc. has partnered with Adobe Inc. to bring new artificial intelligence (AI)-powered “digital coaches” to its mobile app. The move is part of a broader push to expand personalization and connection across the retailer’s digital and in-store channels.
Adobe said the new assistants will function as “AI agents,” offering sport-specific training tips and guiding shoppers from product discovery to recommendations “informed by specific athlete needs.” The experience is powered by Adobe Brand Concierge, its conversational AI platform.
Dick’s Sporting Goods looks to boost cross-channel messaging. As it does, it’s also adopting other Adobe enterprise tools to speed up content production and unify customer data. The partnership aims to support more personalized experiences for Dick’s shoppers — which the retailer refers to as “athletes” — across touchpoints, Adobe said.
Dick’s Sporting Goods is 30th in the Top 2000 Database. The database is Digital Commerce 360’s ranking of North America’s online retailers by their annual ecommerce sales.
Why Dick’s Sporting Goods is working with Adobe
“With Adobe, we are further differentiating the experiences for our athletes across all parts of their journey,” said Vlad Rak, Dick’s Sporting Goods’ chief technology officer, in an announcement. “From stores to online, from shopping to performance services, AI capabilities — powered by our deep knowledge of athletes and sport — are becoming the pillar of our strategy.”
Beyond its creative software, Adobe also offers ecommerce tools, site design technology and web analytics products. More than 130 of the Top 2000 online retailers in North America use Adobe’s ecommerce platform.
Meanwhile, more than 100 use it for site design, and more than 200 use the Top 2000 for web analytics.
Inside Dick’s new Adobe-powered experience
The rollout comes as AI tools play a growing role in online product discovery. Citing Adobe Analytics data, Adobe said traffic from AI tools to retail sites rose over 693% year over year during the 2025 holiday season.
Against that backdrop, Dick’s Sporting Goods will now leverage Adobe’s Brand Concierge to power the retailer’s digital coaching feature and deliver what Adobe described as “immersive conversational experiences” in its app. Brand Concierge lets retailers build assistants using their own product data and brand guidelines.
“AI agents (acting as digital coaches) will guide Dick’s athletes in their journey from personalized product recommendations informed by specific athlete needs to tailored training tips,” Adobe said in the announcement. “Anchored in timely and relevant data, teams can also ensure that every agent interaction is customized and reacts to athletes’ changing preferences.”
Other Adobe tools that Dick’s will use
Beyond AI agents, Dick’s Sporting Goods will use other Adobe enterprise tools, ensuring shoppers’ journeys are “tailored and consistent.”
Part of that focuses on personalization. Dick’s Sporting Goods will use Adobe Experience Platform, a system for managing customer data, to combine data from shopper interactions across its app, website and other channels.
Adobe said this will help the retailer “more deeply understand athletes’ needs and preferences.” From there, teams can build audience segments through Adobe Real-Time Customer Data Platform and use Adobe Journey Optimizer to manage personalized experiences across channels.
Adobe said that it will help Dick’s Sporting Goods “deliver the right content at just the right moment” and boost engagement.
“Our partnership speaks to the value that AI can bring when CMOs and CTOs collaborate, building on top of an integrated customer data platform, that makes it easier for marketing teams to understand preferences and deliver experiences that are intuitive, relevant and deepen brand loyalty,” said Rachel Thornton, Adobe Enterprise chief marketing officer, in a statement.
As consumer trends shift, Dick’s is also using Adobe tools to speed up on-brand content production. Adobe said the retailer will use:
- Adobe GenStudio to streamline its content workflow.
- Adobe Workfront for team collaboration.
- Adobe Experience Manager for managing digital assets.
- Adobe Firefly Services and Custom Models to generate branded content variations for different marketing channels.
Dick’s outlines a wider AI strategy
The partnership fits into Dick’s Sporting Goods’ broader AI and digital plans.
To help shoppers find the right products and services, the retailer is working to create a more consistent experience across channels, Lauren Hobart, president, CEO and director, told analysts during its February earnings call.
“Whether they are using better search and reviews online, tapping into new digital tools in the store or in the app, or working directly with our teammates, their experience is becoming more personalized and more connected,” she said.
Hobart also confirmed that the company is evaluating “all aspects of artificial intelligence, including agentic,” across the business.
She noted Dick’s Sporting Goods is already using AI in several areas, including:
- Marketing technology aimed at reducing manual work.
- Store labor forecasting.
- A new AI-enabled feature in its app.
- More customized product recommendations.
- Inventory management and regional product relevance.
Looking ahead, Hobart said Dick’s Sporting Goods sees agentic AI as a way to make its sports expertise and product knowledge more accessible. A big focus is “to take all of our data, all of our knowledge, our teammates’ learnings over the years and make that available for consumers,” she said.
Adobe pushes agentic AI strategy
Agentic AI was also a major focus at Adobe Summit in late April. In ecommerce, agentic systems are designed to handle tasks like product discovery, decision-making and payments within a single AI conversation.
At the conference, Adobe announced new partnerships with technology providers, agencies and systems integrators to help businesses scale agent-powered workflows. These workflows are happening in areas such as customer engagement, content operations and brand visibility, the company said.
The group includes Amazon Web Services, Anthropic, Google Cloud, IBM, Microsoft, Nvidia and OpenAI. Adobe said the integrations are part of Adobe CX Enterprise, its new agentic AI platform.
The conference also marked a milestone for Adobe leadership. CEO Shantanu Narayen delivered his final keynote after Adobe announced in March that he would step down after 18 years in the role. In remarks, he stressed the need for enterprises to become “digital-first and agent-ready.”
“As AI agents become an additional important interface between businesses and consumers, they’re also reshaping both product discovery as well as purchase and commerce behavior,” said Narayen, who will remain chair of the board and stay involved during the leadership transition. “Now it’s not just about engaging customers; you also have to engage the agents acting on behalf of your customers and design an experience for both of them.”
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