Australian wholesale and retail group Metcash is expanding its partnership with Coveo. The expansion brings generative AI-powered conversational search into the digital systems used by its network of independent retailers.
The latest rollout puts Coveo’s AI technology inside AskROSS, Metcash’s B2B customer communications platform. Instead of digging through pages of information or trying different keyword combinations, retailers will be able to ask questions in everyday language. They will then receive answers based on relevant business content.
Publicis Sapient is also involved in the project. It is continuing its work with Metcash on the digital infrastructure and services behind the retailer experience.
Metcash Brings Conversational AI Into AskROSS
Metcash is using Coveo’s conversational search technology to change how independent retailers find information inside AskROSS. Rather than relying only on traditional search queries, users can type questions in natural language. As a result, they receive answers that are matched to the intent behind the request. The goal is straightforward: make everyday information easier to find. This will allow retailers to find what they need without working through multiple pages, documents or search results.
That could be particularly useful in retail environments where staff often need answers quickly. Product questions, operational procedures, supplier information and day-to-day support requests can become time-consuming when the relevant information is spread across different systems. However, a conversational layer gives retailers another way to reach the same information. They do not need to know exactly where it is stored.
Metcash expects the rollout to improve self-service while reducing the amount of time retailers spend looking for routine information. The value here is less about adding a flashy AI feature and more about removing friction from ordinary work.
AI Answers Could Eventually Reach Support Agents Too
The expanded partnership also points toward a broader use of Coveo’s AI technology beyond retailer-facing search. Metcash plans to make similar relevant information available inside the support agent experience. As a result, customer service teams have quicker access to the material they need when handling retailer enquiries.
That creates a more connected support model. A retailer asking a question through AskROSS and an employee dealing with a more complicated version of the same issue could eventually draw from the same underlying knowledge base. Instead of maintaining completely separate information experiences, Metcash can use a common AI-powered retrieval layer. This can span across different parts of its operation.
For enterprise AI, that kind of shared information architecture matters. Companies are increasingly looking beyond standalone chatbots and toward systems that can retrieve trusted internal knowledge wherever an employee, customer or partner needs it.
The Coveo Relationship Already Extends Into B2B Commerce
Metcash already uses Coveo technology within Sorted, its B2B marketplace, so the latest expansion builds on an existing relationship rather than introducing an entirely new platform. Coveo has been helping improve product discovery in the marketplace. Meanwhile, the AskROSS integration moves its technology deeper into retailer support and business information workflows.
The shift is notable because search in B2B commerce is becoming broader than simply helping someone locate a product. Retailers may need information about stock, policies, ordering processes, suppliers, services or operating procedures, sometimes within the same session. AI-powered retrieval gives Metcash a way to connect those different information needs through a more consistent interface.
Coveo has also been pushing further into conversational commerce. The company introduced Conversational Product Discovery, a capability designed to let users describe what they need through natural language while connecting those conversations to structured product information. The same direction is visible in Metcash’s deployment. Here, traditional keyword search is being replaced by something closer to an ongoing dialogue with enterprise data.
Publicis Sapient Is Building the Experience Around the AI
Publicis Sapient is playing an important role in the project by continuing its work with Metcash on the broader retailer experience, including the content and service foundations that sit underneath the new AI functionality. That background work is easy to overlook, but it is critical because generative AI is only useful when it can access reliable, well-organised and relevant information.
A conversational interface can look impressive while still failing if the content behind it is outdated, fragmented or inconsistent. Metcash’s approach appears to be more practical. Instead of placing an AI assistant on top of existing systems and hoping it works, the company is pairing the technology with ongoing improvements to the underlying digital environment.
Publicis Sapient has also pointed to the growing role of AI-powered search and agentic commerce in B2B environments. Metcash’s rollout fits that direction, although the current use case remains grounded in something very tangible: helping retailers get better answers faster.
B2B Retail Is Becoming a Practical Test Bed for Enterprise AI
B2B retail creates an interesting environment for generative AI because the information landscape is usually far more complicated than what a consumer sees on a storefront. There can be large product catalogues, internal policies, supplier documents, training material, operational guidance, service information and customer support content spread across multiple systems.
The people using those systems rarely care which database holds the answer. They just want to ask a question and move on with the job. That makes conversational search a natural fit, especially when the underlying AI can retrieve information from approved enterprise sources. This is more useful than producing a generic response.
For Metcash, the immediate benefit is practical. Retailers can spend less time searching, handle more common questions themselves and reach useful information more quickly. For Coveo, the partnership offers another example of how generative AI is moving into day-to-day enterprise workflows rather than remaining an experimental feature.
The broader shift is already visible across enterprise software. AI search is slowly becoming an access layer for business knowledge, and the next step is likely to involve systems that do more than retrieve information. Once AI can reliably understand context and access trusted data, companies can start connecting those systems to workflows, recommendations and eventually more autonomous actions.
Metcash is not presenting this rollout as that final step. For now, the promise is much simpler: retailers ask a question, receive relevant information and spend less time searching for it. In a busy B2B environment, that may be enough to make the technology genuinely useful.
Sources
PR Newswire — Metcash and Coveo Expand Strategic Partnership to Power Next Generation AI-Enabled Experiences for B2B Retail Customers
https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/metcash-and-coveo-expand-strategic-partnership-to-power-next-generation-ai-enabled-experiences-for-b2b-retail-customers-302891518.html
Coveo — First Quarter Fiscal 2027 Financial Results
https://ir.coveo.com/en/news-events/press-releases/detail/491/coveo-reports-first-quarter-fiscal-2027-financial-results
