AI Assistant Karol Now Handles 45 Percent of Carrefour Poland's Customer Inquiries

Carrefour Polska has shared the results of its AI assistant Karol, which has been handling part of the retail chain's customer contacts since April 2025. According to data published on September 9, 2026, the assistant handled an average of 45 percent of all inquiries through February 2026, with the share reaching nearly 90 percent on chat during the pre-holiday peak season.

Karol is a multichannel AI assistant supporting Carrefour's customer service. It combines text and voice support with access to the company's data and processes, helping customers check product availability, order status, or store information. The chain has not disclosed which language model or technology provider powers the assistant.

What the Numbers Show

The most telling figure is the contrast between the average and the seasonal peak. In December, when customer contact volume rises most sharply due to holiday shopping and complaints, Karol performed better than during the rest of the year, closing 89 percent of chat conversations on its own. That suggests the system works best with repetitive, simple questions, which make up the bulk of inquiries during high-traffic periods.

The 24 percent year-over-year drop in inquiries reaching consultants represents a concrete time savings for the customer service team, though Carrefour did not disclose how many people work on that line or whether the automation came with any staffing changes.

Management's Take

We measure the value of AI in retail by whether it makes it easier for the customer to get things done and improves how the organization operates. Karol combines voice and text support with access to Carrefour's data and processes. Automating repetitive contacts lets our consultants devote more attention to cases that require judgment, empathy and an individual approach - Robert Stupak, board member, director of marketing, digital, e-commerce and IT at Carrefour Polska

Stupak stresses that the goal is not to eliminate people from customer service entirely, but to shift their attention to cases the automated system can't handle: complaints requiring individual assessment, disputes, or questions that fall outside standard scenarios.

The Chain's Broader AI Strategy

Karol is part of Carrefour's broader artificial intelligence strategy. The group is developing a partnership with Google under the Universal Commerce protocol, which would let customers do their grocery shopping directly through Gemini-based AI agents. In Belgium, Carrefour customers can already use a ChatGPT-based assistant to plan and put together their grocery shopping, built in collaboration with the startup Mealz.ai.

That shows the French retailer treats AI as part of the entire customer contact chain, not just the helpline, from product search through shopping planning to post-sale complaint handling and inquiries.

What's Next

Carrefour says Karol will develop in three directions: more personalized support for orders, expanding the assistant to the mobile app, and building out its knowledge base and service scenarios so it can handle an ever-wider range of cases.

For Polish retail companies, this is another concrete example of an AI customer service deployment with measurable results, alongside earlier announcements from Allegro and ElevenLabs, and from Delivery Hero. Pressure is growing across the retail sector for similar metrics, the share of automatically resolved cases, the drop in escalations to consultants, to become a standard part of customer service efficiency reporting.