AI

Ace Hardware AI-powered assistant boosting customer, employee experience

Ace Hardware's AI store associate tool, Hey ARMA, is improving the associate experience in ways that translate into better customer service: faster answers, more informed recommendations and smoother in-store interactions.

Photo: Ace Hardware

June 26, 2026 by Judy Mottl — Editor: RetailCustomerExperience.com & DigitalSignageToday.com, Connect Media

Summarize with

Ace Hardware has a broad commitment to investing in frontline teams and embracing innovation that boosts customer service and enhances the customer experience. Its latest technology innovation, an AI-powered assistant called "Hey ARMA," focuses on that commitment. ARMA is an acronym for Ace Retailer Mobile Assistant.

The tool is housed on the retailer's handheld devices used by store associates and provides access to product knowledge, project guidance and recommendations.

Associates can conduct product comparisons for customers as well as project-related questions. It even can help customers with items they may have purchased elsewhere.

Hey ARMA is in play at 2,600-plus locations so far and has responded to 55,000 questions since release in late winter. Ace Hardware has invested 860-plus hours in store associate training on the tool.

Ace Hardware operates more than 8,800 locally owned and operated stores worldwide, with 5,200 retail stores in the U.S.

"Hey ARMA" is the voice cue store associates use to activate the AI-powered assistant within the platform. Associates can also communicate with ARMA via text.

"After 78 years in the hardware business, Hey ARMA is one of the most impactful changes we've ever made to elevate the customer service experience," Bill Wygal, owner of Bill's Ace Hardware, a two-store chain in California, said in a press release on the tool's development. "With the push of a button, our associates can quickly locate products, understand what they do and confidently recommend the right solutions for our customers."

The name Hey ARMA is a good fit as it builds off a tool (Ace Hardware's ARMA platform) many Ace associates already know, so it feels intuitive and easy to adopt, according to Andy Enright, senior vice president of retail strategy and operations for Ace Hardware.

RetailCustomerExperience reached out to Enright via an email interview to dive deep into the AI-powered associate tool.

Q: Can you take us back to the earliest stages of strategy and ideation for what eventually became Hey ARMA? What prompted its development?

Enright: 'Hey ARMA' came out of a simple need we see in stores every day: associates are helping customers solve problems in real time, and they need fast, reliable answers without stepping away from the conversation. The goal was to remove friction so associates could spend less time searching and more time helping. It is part of Ace's broader work to modernize the store experience in a way that strengthens, not replaces, the human service Ace is known for. From the beginning, we focused on making it practical for the store environment, which meant building it into ARMA, the Ace Retailer Mobile Assistant, so it fits naturally into existing workflows. It was a cross-functional effort across retail operations, store systems, product teams, and technology partners supporting the mobile and voice experience. We took a phased rollout approach, launching Hey ARMA in stores in February and continuing to expand from there.

Q: How does Hey ARMA help the store associate in terms of their role in the customer experience?

Enright: Hey ARMA helps associates stay with the customer while getting to answers faster. It gives them real-time access to product knowledge, project guidance, product comparisons, related recommendations, inventory availability, pricing and promotions, and even support for non-Ace items a customer may bring in. That lets associates respond with more confidence and keep the interaction moving instead of stopping to search multiple sources or leave the aisle to track down information. Before Hey ARMA, an associate handling a detailed project question might rely on finding another team member, search through systems or step away from the customer to confirm details or availability. Now they can use the handheld to get quick answers in the moment, whether the customer is asking which product is right for a project, how two items compare, or whether something is in stock.

Q. What training for store associates was needed for the tool?

Enright: Because Hey ARMA is built into the existing [Ace Hardware] ARMA platform and designed to be intuitive, the training lift has been relatively light. The focus has been on helping associates understand when and how to use it in real customer interactions, not on teaching them a completely new system. Since it is voice or text activated and embedded in familiar store workflows, adoption is meant to feel natural on the sales floor. The goal is to make it easy enough that associates can quickly fold it into how they already work, using it to enhance their expertise and service, not replace their judgment.

Q: What has been the response from store associates?

Enright: Early response from retailers has been encouraging, especially around how quickly the tool helps them answer questions and navigate customer needs with more confidence. The value is straightforward: it gives associates reliable information faster, especially when customers are asking detailed product or project questions in the aisle or at the counter. Just as important, adoption at scale is a strong signal on its own. Hey ARMA is active in more than 2,600 stores, which reflects real retailer momentum since the launch and confidence in the tool's usefulness. We are continuing to gather feedback, invest in the tool, and enhance the experience as the rollout expands.

Q: What has been the customer response, if any at this point?

Enright: It is still early, so the clearest story right now is how Hey ARMA is improving the associate experience in ways that should translate into better customer service: faster answers, more informed recommendations and smoother in-store interactions. Because the tool is designed to work in the background, the customer experience still centers on the associate and the personal service Ace is known for. Where we have heard anecdotal feedback, it points to a better ability to solve customer questions in the moment. The best way to frame customer response today is that Hey ARMA helps associates deliver quicker, more confident help while preserving the neighborly, high-touch experience customers expect from Ace.

Q. Are there any data points on how the AI assistant is providing to be useful?

Enright: The clearest proof point right now is scale and adoption: Hey ARMA is active in more than 2,600 Ace stores, which shows broad retailer uptake. It signals stores are finding value in having quick access to knowledge right on the sales floor. Beyond that, the story today is less about one headline number and more about practical impact: helping associates answer questions faster, feel more confident in customer interactions and move more easily from advice to action.

Q. Any tips or advice given the development experience you would give to others on developing such an AI tool?

Enright: One of the biggest lessons is to start with a real operational need, not the technology itself. The team building Hey ARMA spent a significant amount of time working directly in our test stores and consistently getting feedback from our red-vested heroes on the front lines throughout the build process. The focus was on helping associates serve customers better in the moment, so the tool was built around real-life feedback and store experiences. That heightened the focus and provided great clarity on the need for speed, accuracy, as well as a few features that weren't originally on our radar, such as feeding in our promotional data. This pressure-testing and retailer feedback made for a much more robust and retail-ready tool, which ultimately led to quicker adoption at scale post launch.

About Judy Mottl

Judy Mottl is the editor of RetailCustomerExperience.com and DigitalSignageToday.com at Connect Media. She is an award-winning editor, reporter and blogger who has worked for top media for nearly four decades, including AOL, InformationWeek and Internet News, as well as for leading technology providers including HP. She’s written everything from breaking news to in-depth industry trends and reported on technology long before the internet arrived, including the debut of the first smartphone. When she's not sharing insights on digital signage deployments and trends in retail customer experience she's on the beach or watching the latest live murder trial.

Connect with Judy: