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Dick’s Sporting Goods Inc. is significantly enhancing its customer engagement strategy through a strategic partnership with Adobe Inc., introducing advanced artificial intelligence (AI)-powered "digital coaches" within its mobile application. This initiative marks a pivotal step in the retailer’s commitment to delivering deeply personalized experiences that seamlessly bridge its digital and in-store channels, redefining how "athletes," as Dick’s customers are referred to, interact with the brand.
The newly implemented AI assistants, described by Adobe as "AI agents," are designed to function as knowledgeable guides, offering sport-specific training advice and providing tailored product recommendations. This sophisticated guidance system aims to support customers throughout their entire shopping journey, from initial product discovery to making informed purchasing decisions, all driven by a keen understanding of individual athlete needs. The technology underpinning these virtual coaches is Adobe Brand Concierge, a robust conversational AI platform.
This collaboration underscores Dick’s Sporting Goods’ ambition to foster stronger, more cohesive messaging across all customer touchpoints. Concurrently, the retailer is adopting a suite of other Adobe enterprise tools to streamline content creation processes and consolidate customer data, creating a unified view of its clientele. The overarching objective of this partnership is to cultivate more personalized and relevant experiences for every "athlete" interacting with Dick’s, whether online or within physical store locations, as highlighted by Adobe.
Dick’s Sporting Goods’ strategic integration of AI and advanced digital tools positions it for continued growth and customer loyalty. As a significant player in the North American e-commerce landscape, ranked 30th in Digital Commerce 360’s Top 2000 Database, the retailer’s investment in cutting-edge technology signals a proactive approach to meeting evolving consumer expectations in a competitive market.
Strategic Imperatives Behind the Adobe Collaboration
Vlad Rak, Chief Technology Officer at Dick’s Sporting Goods, articulated the strategic rationale behind the partnership, stating, "With Adobe, we are further differentiating the experiences for our athletes across all parts of their journey. 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." This statement emphasizes a holistic vision where AI is not merely a feature but a foundational element of the company’s future growth and customer engagement model.
Adobe’s comprehensive suite of offerings extends beyond creative software to encompass critical e-commerce tools, site design technologies, and web analytics products. The widespread adoption of Adobe’s e-commerce platform by a significant portion of North America’s top online retailers, including over 130 of the Top 2000, underscores its industry leadership and the trust placed in its solutions. These retailers collectively generated over $44.6 billion in e-commerce sales in 2025, showcasing the economic impact of Adobe’s ecosystem. Furthermore, Adobe’s influence is evident in site design, with over 100 Top 2000 retailers utilizing its tools, and in web analytics, where more than 200 retailers rely on its insights.
Unveiling Dick’s Enhanced Digital Experience
The rollout of these AI-powered digital coaches coincides with the burgeoning influence of AI in online product discovery. Adobe’s own data, sourced from Adobe Analytics, reveals a dramatic surge in traffic from AI tools to retail websites, increasing by over 693% year-over-year during the 2025 holiday season. This trend highlights the growing consumer reliance on AI-driven recommendations and assistance.
Leveraging Adobe Brand Concierge, Dick’s Sporting Goods aims to deliver "immersive conversational experiences" within its mobile app. This platform empowers retailers to develop bespoke AI assistants by integrating their proprietary product data and brand guidelines, ensuring that the AI’s responses are authentic and aligned with the brand’s voice and offerings.
Adobe elaborated on the functionality of these AI agents, stating, "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. Anchored in timely and relevant data, teams can also ensure that every agent interaction is customized and reacts to athletes’ changing preferences." This capability ensures that the AI can adapt to individual user behavior and evolving preferences, providing a dynamic and highly relevant experience.
Expanding the Digital Toolkit with Adobe’s Enterprise Solutions
Beyond the introduction of AI agents, Dick’s Sporting Goods is integrating additional Adobe enterprise tools to ensure a "tailored and consistent" customer journey across all interaction points. A core component of this strategy is a heightened focus on personalization, facilitated by Adobe Experience Platform. This system serves as a central hub for managing customer data, consolidating insights from shopper interactions across the retailer’s app, website, and other channels.
Adobe explains that this unified data approach will enable the retailer to "more deeply understand athletes’ needs and preferences." Equipped with this enhanced understanding, marketing teams can then create sophisticated audience segments using Adobe Real-Time Customer Data Platform and deploy personalized experiences across various channels through Adobe Journey Optimizer. This integrated approach ensures that Dick’s can "deliver the right content at just the right moment," thereby boosting customer engagement and fostering stronger brand affinity.
Rachel Thornton, Adobe Enterprise Chief Marketing Officer, commented on the strategic synergy, "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." This highlights the critical role of cross-departmental collaboration in leveraging AI for tangible business outcomes.
In response to shifting consumer trends and the need for agile content strategies, Dick’s is also utilizing Adobe tools to accelerate on-brand content production. While the original article did not specify which particular Adobe content creation tools were being implemented, this integration suggests a move towards more efficient and cohesive content workflows.
Dick’s Sporting Goods’ Vision for an AI-Driven Future
The partnership with Adobe is an integral part of Dick’s Sporting Goods’ broader AI and digital transformation roadmap. Lauren Hobart, President, CEO, and Director of Dick’s Sporting Goods, has previously emphasized the company’s commitment to creating a consistent and personalized experience for its customers. During a February earnings call, she stated, "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."
Hobart also confirmed that the company is actively evaluating "all aspects of artificial intelligence, including agentic," across its business operations. This indicates a comprehensive and forward-thinking approach to AI adoption. Dick’s Sporting Goods has already implemented AI in various areas, including:
- Inventory Management: Optimizing stock levels and distribution to reduce stockouts and improve fulfillment efficiency.
- Demand Forecasting: Leveraging AI models to predict product demand more accurately, enabling better inventory planning and marketing campaign optimization.
- Personalized Marketing: Using AI to analyze customer data and deliver targeted promotions and product recommendations, increasing conversion rates.
- Customer Service Enhancement: Exploring AI-powered chatbots and virtual assistants to provide faster and more efficient customer support.
Looking ahead, Hobart views "agentic AI" as a key enabler for making the company’s extensive sports expertise and product knowledge more accessible to consumers. The strategic imperative is "to take all of our data, all of our knowledge, our teammates’ learnings over the years and make that available for consumers," thereby empowering them with the information they need to excel in their athletic pursuits.
Adobe’s Strategic Push in Agentic AI
The emphasis on agentic AI was a prominent theme at Adobe Summit in late April, underscoring the technology’s growing significance in the e-commerce sector. Agentic systems in e-commerce are designed to autonomously handle complex tasks, from initial product discovery and decision-making processes to completing transactions within a single, intelligent conversational flow.
At the summit, Adobe announced strategic alliances with various technology providers, agencies, and systems integrators, aimed at facilitating the widespread adoption and scalability of agent-powered workflows. These workflows are being implemented across critical business functions, including customer engagement, content operations, and brand visibility.
Key partners collaborating with Adobe in this endeavor include industry giants such as Amazon Web Services, Anthropic, Google Cloud, IBM, Microsoft, Nvidia, and OpenAI. These integrations are foundational to Adobe CX Enterprise, the company’s newly launched agentic AI platform.
The conference also marked a significant moment for Adobe’s leadership, as CEO Shantanu Narayen delivered his final keynote address. Following his announcement in March to step down after 18 years at the helm, Narayen stressed the imperative for enterprises to become "digital-first and agent-ready."
Narayen articulated the transformative impact of AI agents, stating, "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. 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." This perspective highlights a paradigm shift in how businesses must conceptualize customer interaction in the age of AI.
The strategic alignment between Dick’s Sporting Goods and Adobe signifies a commitment to leveraging advanced AI technologies to create more intuitive, personalized, and valuable experiences for consumers, positioning both companies at the forefront of the evolving digital commerce landscape.
