Canadian Tire Corporation is adapting its retail strategy for a shopping environment in which artificial intelligence may play a growing role in both what consumers buy and which retailers they discover.
During the company’s second-quarter earnings call, President and CEO Greg Hicks said Canadian Tire has added shopping lists, FAQs, tips and other information to its websites so AI agents can more easily discover, understand and recommend its products when consumers search through large language models. The work is part of a broader AI strategy that is also influencing how Canadian Tire identifies merchandising opportunities, builds assortments and coordinates its retail banners.
The disclosure comes as technology companies and retailers invest heavily in new forms of AI-assisted product discovery. Retailers increasingly have to consider how their products are understood by AI systems as well as shoppers and conventional search engines. At Canadian Tire, that external shift is happening alongside an internal one: the company is using AI to identify areas where it believes it can capture more customer spending.
From Product Categories to Customer Occasions
At the centre of that effort is MOSaiC, a retail intelligence platform developed with Microsoft and built on Azure. Canadian Tire announced a broader rollout of MOSaiC in February after a 2025 pilot identified more than 1,000 customer “life occasions” where the company believed its retail system could better serve shoppers. The platform combines AI and advanced analytics with internal sales and Triangle Rewards information, as well as external inputs including seasonality, weather, holidays and local events.
Hicks told analysts that Canadian Tire has analyzed hundreds of millions of transactions, Triangle loyalty information and external insights as it shifts from primarily selling products to serving what the company calls the “occasions of life.” Rather than beginning solely with a category such as sporting goods, apparel or home products, Canadian Tire can look at the customer’s broader shopping occasion and determine which parts of the company can participate.
MOSaiC is designed to turn those insights into decisions about inventory, product assortments, promotions, digital content and services across Canadian Tire, SportChek and Mark’s. Canadian Tire said in February that its retail and digital teams were beginning to use the findings for new merchandise assortments, local store and online experiences, and personalized promotions.
Back-to-School Becomes the First Major Test
Canadian Tire describes back-to-school as its first major “customer lighthouse,” the company’s term for a shopping occasion where it believes coordinated execution across its banners can produce meaningful market-share gains.
The company estimates the Canadian back-to-school market at approximately $3.4 billion and says it currently holds a low-double-digit share. Hicks described the business as relatively small for Canadian Tire today but said the company sees considerable room to grow its position.
AI-derived insights have already prompted changes to assortment and pricing. Hicks told analysts that Canadian Tire identified gaps ranging from approximately $500 Chromebooks to small fans for university dorm rooms, products that previously were not part of its traditional back-to-school approach. The work has also led to new categories, different price points and changes to merchandising.
Canadian Tire is coordinating the initiative across Canadian Tire Retail, SportChek, Mark’s and Triangle rather than approaching back-to-school separately at each banner. For the first time, SportChek and Mark’s marketing is appearing in the Canadian Tire flyer as part of the campaign, while digital content and personalized Triangle offers are also being organized around the occasion.
Hicks used the example of a parent buying sneakers who may also need crayons and jeans, or a student moving into residence who may need a laptop, fan, furniture and hoodie. Canadian Tire already participates in many of those categories, but historically the products have been spread among different banners and departments. The new approach is intended to capture more of the overall shopping occasion.
Stifel analyst Martin Landry highlighted the strategy following the earnings call, noting that Canadian Tire’s AI tools have introduced new product categories, merchandising approaches and price points around back-to-school that could support market-share gains.
Canadian Tire’s Banners Become More Connected
The AI strategy fits with Canadian Tire’s broader effort to operate its businesses as a more integrated retail system. Canadian Tire, SportChek and Mark’s websites are increasingly connected, allowing customers to move more easily among the banners, with integrated search, carts and payments planned as the digital platform develops.
That integration gives Canadian Tire another way to act on the insights generated by MOSaiC. If the company identifies a customer occasion spanning apparel, sporting goods, household merchandise and other categories, shoppers can increasingly be directed across the banners rather than being treated solely as customers of one business.
The approach could be particularly valuable to SportChek and Mark’s, which operate smaller digital businesses than the Canadian Tire banner. Hicks said Canadian Tire’s substantial web volumes are already generating traffic for the two banners, while Stifel also highlighted the company’s improving ability to direct online traffic toward them. E-commerce sales across Canadian Tire’s banners increased 12% in the second quarter, including 14% growth at Canadian Tire Retail.
The work is part of Canadian Tire’s broader True North strategy, which is intended to capture more of the scale available across the company rather than allowing individual banners and systems to operate independently. MOSaiC adds another layer by identifying customer needs that may extend across several parts of the business.
Preparing for Product Discovery Through AI
Canadian Tire is simultaneously preparing for changes in how consumers find products online. Online shopping has traditionally relied heavily on relatively specific searches for products such as backpacks, desk fans or laptops. Generative AI allows shoppers to begin with a broader need, such as preparing a student for a university dorm room, and have an AI system research products, compare choices and make recommendations.
That changes what retailers need from their digital content. Information published online can increasingly be interpreted by AI systems deciding which products are relevant to a consumer’s request. Hicks’ comments indicate Canadian Tire is already responding by adding shopping lists, FAQs, tips and other information intended to help AI agents understand and recommend its merchandise.
Canadian Tire is not alone in preparing for AI-mediated product discovery, as major technology platforms and retailers build shopping functions around generative AI. The notable development at Canadian Tire is that this work is occurring alongside its own use of AI to identify the shopping occasions where it wants to compete.
Triangle Provides a Large Base of Customer Data
Canadian Tire enters that transition with one of its most important assets already in place. Triangle Rewards has 9.8 million active registered members, according to Stifel, representing an estimated 50% to 60% of Canadian households.
That gives Canadian Tire a substantial base of first-party purchasing information across its retail ecosystem. As the company focuses more heavily on customer occasions, it can examine how loyalty members move among Canadian Tire, SportChek and Mark’s and identify categories or shopping needs where it believes the combined business is underrepresented.
Triangle is also becoming more connected to outside partners. Management said more than two million members are now active with partners including Petro-Canada, RBC or WestJet, with the Tim Hortons partnership expected to add another everyday touchpoint.
AI-driven product discovery introduces another consideration. External AI services can provide retailers with new ways to reach shoppers, while businesses with large loyalty programs still have an incentive to maintain direct customer relationships. For Canadian Tire, making products easier for AI systems to discover can sit alongside its efforts to bring shoppers into an ecosystem built around Triangle, personalization and its different retail banners.
AI Moves Deeper Into Canadian Tire
MOSaiC is not Canadian Tire’s first use of artificial intelligence. The company has already deployed DaiVID, an AI-powered pricing and promotions platform, and is rolling out Microsoft 365 Copilot to corporate employees. Canadian Tire says DaiVID has contributed to improved customer perceptions of value, while MOSaiC represents a broader effort to use AI and data across the retail system.
The scale of the company’s AI work has also been building through 2026. During its first-quarter call, Hicks said MOSaiC had already surfaced more than 1,000 customer life occasions and 180,000 demand signals. He also said AI was informing about one-third of developers’ code and that newly constructed agents had been deployed into real-world workflows.
The difference now is how closely some of those capabilities are becoming connected to everyday retail decisions. Back-to-school shows how customer data and AI can identify an occasion where Canadian Tire believes it is underrepresented, leading to assortment and pricing changes and greater coordination across Canadian Tire, SportChek, Mark’s and Triangle.
At the same time, the company is changing its digital content so the resulting products and shopping solutions can be better understood by the AI systems consumers may increasingly use to find them.
Holiday Comes Next
Back-to-school will provide an early indication of how well the strategy works at scale. Canadian Tire intends to evaluate the results of its customer lighthouses and refine the approach as it moves through other major shopping occasions.
Holiday is next. Hicks described it as a considerably larger business with opportunities to increase both sales and market share, and Canadian Tire has already identified assortment gaps as it prepares. One example cited during the call was lower-priced wrapping paper, an area where the company determined its offering was not sufficiently competitive.
MOSaiC is now moving from pilot and development into decisions customers can see in stores and online. Back-to-school is the first large-scale demonstration of how Canadian Tire intends to apply those insights across its retail system, with holiday providing the next test.
