Migros One, which brings Migros’s digital services together under one umbrella, is moving toward an AI-based retail model spanning both the customer interface and internal operations. Its ecosystem includes Migros Sanal Market, Migros Hemen, Migros Yemek, Macroonline, Mion, Petimo, Migros Sanal Market Ekstra, and Tazedirekt.
In an interview with Orçun Onat, CEO of Migros One, the company explained that the transformation is not limited to adding AI tools to shopping applications. It also extends to how stores and digital services are operated and how customer needs are analyzed. Migros One treats physical stores and digital channels as integrated parts of a single experience.
From Searching for a Product to Expressing a Need
MAYA AI is at the center of the new customer experience. Instead of typing the name of a specific product into the search box, the target model is based on describing a need in natural language, while attempting to understand the context and preferences and build a suitable recommendation or basket.
This approach takes personalization in e-commerce beyond suggesting similar products. According to the account in the interview, the goal is to align the recommendation with the customer’s situation and needs at the moment of shopping, rather than merely matching search terms with the product catalog.
AI Within Operations
Migros One also uses AI in the internal work environment. SmartOne enables employees to interact with company data in natural language, while other uses include automated order collection through robots and process optimization. The Mystro application, designed to support restaurant performance, is also noteworthy.
The company intends to bring these technologies and operational expertise together under M1 Solutions, a unit it established within Migros One to make what it has developed available to other entities and companies. The source provides no additional commercial or technical details about the availability model or the scope of the target customers.
Intelligent Assistants as a New Commerce Channel
Migros One believes that the customer journey may in the future begin with an AI assistant used by the customer rather than with a particular store’s application. In this context, the company’s partnership with OpenAI and its ChatGPT integration form part of its preparations to deal with this type of channel.
In practical terms, what is changing is that the visibility of a store or product will not depend solely on improving its ranking in search engines. As users rely on intelligent assistants, retailers will also need to be understandable and selectable by AI systems. The interview refers to this as improving visibility in generative engines, alongside traditional search engine optimization.
What Has Not Yet Been Resolved?
The source presents Migros One’s direction and the areas of application on which it is working, but it provides no figures on the impact of these applications on sales, costs, or recommendation accuracy. It also does not specify a timeline for expanding MAYA AI or provide details about the ChatGPT integration. Therefore, the practical value of these initiatives remains tied to the extent to which they move from experiments and internal capabilities to broad use whose results can be measured.