When we talk about speed in retail, the conversation usually revolves around supply chains or fashion cycles. But recently, Joannah Holmes, Director of Customer Service at URBN, applied that same urgency to a problem that plagues almost every enterprise CX leader: the “legacy bot” trap.
In a two-week sprint, URBN—the portfolio behind Anthropologie, Free People, Urban Outfitters, and Terrain—replaced a fragmented system of decision-tree bots with a single, unified agentic AI Agent.
This wasn’t a small pilot. It was a global rollout across seven countries and five languages, serving hundreds of thousands of customers monthly.
For leaders watching the AI space with a mix of interest and caution, URBN’s story offers more than just impressive timelines. It provides a blueprint for shifting from simple automated answers to true, reliable resolution.
The “Button-Path” Ceiling
Before this shift, URBN relied on a standard Salesforce (SFDC) Einstein bot. If you lead a support organization, you know exactly how this system behaves. It was a classic “button-path” model operating on a rigid decision tree.
A customer clicks a button. The bot surfaces a “Top 10” FAQ. If the customer’s need falls even an inch outside that pre-programmed scope, the experience breaks.
The operational cost of this model was just as high as the cost to customer sentiment. Because the system couldn’t handle context, URBN had to manage different bots for different regions—the US, UK, Italy, Spain, France, and Germany. Each had its own logic, its own maintenance requirements, and its own limitations.
While the bot could look up an order status, it couldn’t actually solve a problem. For a global customer base expecting conversational fluency on WhatsApp and SMS, the button-path model had hit a hard ceiling. It wasn’t acting as an agent; it was acting as a search bar.
The Two-Week Pivot: One Brain, Many Brands
The most significant part of URBN’s rollout wasn’t the speed—though 14 days is remarkable—but the consolidation.
Most global enterprises assume that complexity requires more layers. They build individual bots for every brand-market-language combination, resulting in a sprawl of “zombie bots” that are hard to update and harder to govern.
Joannah Holmes and her team took the opposite approach. They moved to a unified messaging system powered by a single AI “brain.”
The scope was immense:
- 4 Brands: Urban Outfitters, Free People, Anthropologie, and Terrain.
- 7 Countries: Including an expansion into Canada.
- 5 Languages: English, Italian, Spanish, French, and German.
- Channel Optimization: Replacing old-school bots on SMS and WhatsApp with one intelligent AI Agent, plus adding Apple Business Messaging for iOS users.
By working with Quiq to deploy a single, unified AI Agent capable of handling these variables, URBN eliminated the fragmentation. The AI Agent understands the context of where the customer is coming from, including:
- Which brand it’s engaging with.
- The right language to speak.
- Customer details, such as what they’ve purchased before and how long they’ve been a customer.
- Any previous interactions, like if the customer is picking up on a previous thread about a return they want to finish up.
The AI Agent then uses that information to seamlessly engage with the customer, resolving any issues and building deeper loyalty.
What “Agentic” Actually Means in Retail
There is a lot of noise around “Agentic AI.” At Quiq, we believe the definition is simple: Agentic AI goes beyond retrieving information to execute actions and resolve issues.
URBN’s implementation moves beyond the “read-only” mode of legacy chatbots. For example, their new AI Agent doesn’t just point customers to a shipping policy page. It handles the critical, complex workflows that actually drive resolutions.
For example, if a product arrives in poor condition, it triggers an emotional response from the customer. The AI Agent manages the workflow, collecting necessary details and offering a resolution, turning a negative moment into a neutral or positive one instantly.
The impact of automating these complex transactions was immediate. In the U.S. alone, the system began handling 4,000 to 5,000 conversations per day. Globally, it supports over 150,000+ customers every month.
Key Lessons for Retail Leaders
If you are a customer experience leader hesitant to replace your legacy systems, URBN’s story offers three clear directives.
1. Consolidate to Accelerate
You do not need 24 different bots to serve 4 brands and 6 languages. You need one intelligent AI Agent that understands context and has clear guardrails. Consolidation gives you better data, easier governance, and a consistent voice across your entire portfolio.
2. Move Beyond FAQs
If your bot only answers the “Top 10 Questions,” you are underutilizing the technology. The real ROI lies in transactional workflows. Look at your top contact drivers—claims, returns, adjustments—and ask if your AI Agent has the permission to actually fix them, or if it’s just describing them.
3. Prioritize Unified Messaging
Modern customer experience isn’t just on your website. URBN met customers where they already were: Apple Business Messaging and WhatsApp. By integrating these into a single AI flow, they removed the friction of the distinct “support channel”, creating seamless experiences across the AI Agent, humans, and channels.
The Future is Fast and Unified
The URBN story proves that “global scale” doesn’t have to mean “years of development.” With the right agentic strategy and partner, you can transform the customer experience for four major brands in the time it takes to go on a two-week vacation.
As Joannah Holmes and her team have demonstrated, the future of retail CX is about being agentic, unified, and delivering resolution at the speed customers deserve.
I’m excited to join Joannah at the next Execs in the Know Customer Response Summit, where she’ll walk through URBN’s incredible AI Agent transformation. See you there!
By Mike Myer, CEO and Founder of Quiq





























































































TELUS Digital
ibex delivers innovative BPO, smart digital marketing, online acquisition technology, and end-to-end customer engagement solutions to help companies acquire, engage and retain customers. ibex leverages its diverse global team and industry-leading technology, including its AI-powered ibex Wave iX solutions suite, to drive superior CX for top brands across retail, e-commerce, healthcare, fintech, utilities and logistics.





















Trista Miller



























