AEON360 teams with Google Cloud on AI shopping push

AEON360 has entered a multi-year collaboration with Google Cloud to build an AI-based shopping system across its retail, finance and lifestyle businesses. The project will start in Malaysia and is intended to expand into other Southeast Asian markets where AEON operates.

The agreement focuses on what the companies describe as a continuous commerce model, bringing together customer data from AEON's services to support shopping, payments, rewards and customer service in a single flow. AEON360 said the work is central to its broader agentic commerce plan for the region.

A key part of the programme is a unified data foundation designed to connect information from AEON entities and customer touchpoints. Using BigQuery, Google Cloud's data platform, AEON360 is building what it describes as an enterprise knowledge graph to reconcile customer data across the group.

The goal is to let shoppers move between AEON services without repeatedly entering the same details or preferences. In the example outlined by the companies, a customer searching for groceries could receive product suggestions, member pricing and stock information linked to previous purchases, while also seeing financing, cashback or loyalty point options during the same journey.

Foundry plan

Alongside the customer-facing work, Google Cloud will help AEON360 establish an Innovation Foundry in Kuala Lumpur. The centre is intended to train employees across AEON's business lines in Google skills and certifications, while giving teams a space to develop AI tools for customer engagement.

The Foundry will use Gemini Enterprise for Customer Experience to deploy shopping and customer service agents. Under the plan, the shopping agent will process text, voice and images to help build carts and carry out approved actions, while a separate customer service agent will handle enquiries and support human representatives.

Low Ngai Yuen, Managing Director of AEON360, and Glen Cha, Chief Technology Officer, will lead the next implementation phase, translating the agreement into operational services for customers.

Daisuke Maeda, Chairman of AEON360, outlined the group's broader ambition for the project. "Our ambition is to create an ecosystem that serves consumers as a cohesive, intelligent entity, so every engagement feels crafted just for them, no matter where they begin their shopping journey," he said.

He added: "With Google Cloud, we're shifting from simple digital interactions to AI agents that surface the most relevant offerings and perform complex tasks on our customers' behalf, starting in Malaysia, with a roadmap to expand across key Southeast Asian markets that we're present in. Through our Innovation Foundry, we're upskilling our staff to be the architects of this agentic commerce future, anchored on a data foundation that adapts to evolving preferences, predicated on customer consent."

Search link

AEON360 also plans to extend the model beyond its own digital channels through the Universal Commerce Protocol, an open standard introduced by Google. The approach is designed to let AI agents and retail systems work across different consumer interfaces, businesses and payment providers.

One application outlined by the companies is a business agent connected through Google Merchant Centre, allowing shoppers to interact directly with AEON brands on Google Search. In that model, the agent would answer product questions and present offers to users close to making a purchase.

These interactions would rely on the same shared data foundation used across AEON's own platforms, with the aim of keeping information consistent and authorised when customers begin their shopping journey outside the AEON ecosystem. AEON360 is also exploring links with Google Pay that would allow agent-led transactions across touchpoints, with payment methods and shipping information stored in Google Wallet.

The partnership reflects a broader push by retailers and consumer groups in Asia to use AI not only for recommendations and marketing, but also for service automation, payments and operational integration. For large groups such as AEON, the commercial challenge has been connecting separate business units and digital channels in a way that gives customers a more consistent experience without adding friction around consent and data use.

Google Cloud said fragmented retail technology has often forced customers to restart interactions at different points in the buying process. "For too long, traditional retail technologies have created fragmented experiences where shoppers are forced to restart their journeys at every turn," said Hana Raja, Country Manager for Malaysia at Google Cloud.

She added: "AEON360 is changing this by using Google Cloud's full-stack AI to turn toilsome browsing into a frictionless experience. Our collaboration will deliver agentic commerce solutions grounded in a 'continuous thread' of context-ensuring that information flows with the shopper to help AEON360 anticipate and act on what they need next."