Guitar Center will look to streamline customer journeys through its new Rig Advisor assistant, a new tool powered by artificial intelligence (AI) on mobile devices.
The AI shopping assistant is intended to help shoppers discover and make comparisons among instruments in Guitar Center’s inventory, according to the retailer’s official announcement. Moreover, it will have visibility into inventory at specific store locations.
Guitar Center is No. 116 in the Top 2000. The database is Digital Commerce 360’s ranking of the largest online retailers in North America. There, it falls under the Toys & Hobbies category. Digital Commerce 360 projects that Guitar Center’s total ecommerce sales in 2025 will reach $869.17 million.
Guitar Center web sales by year
What does Guitar Center’s Rig Advisor do?
Guitar Center Rig Advisor AI assistant | Image credit: Guitar Center
“Rig Advisor is like having a professional gear consultant in the palm of your hand, delivering lightning-fast answers as you explore our music stores,” said Gabe Dalporto, CEO at Guitar Center, in a statement released by the company. “It will turn our stores into tech-powered music hubs where creativity, curiosity, and inspiration lead the way.”
To use Rig Advisor, shoppers will scan a QR code from within a store. Then, after typing in the name of an artist, title of a song, or question related to tone or gear, they will see recommended options. Those results will be informed by inventory statuses on site.
Rig Advisor’s features
Guitar Center emphasized that Rig Advisor was designed to support in-store shopping experiences. Among its capabilities, the retailer listed seven key features. Those include:
- Discovery, serving beginner-level musicians, as well as gift givers and seasoned performers.
- Tones inspired by artists, referencing settings inspired by recognizable songs or artists.
- Custom rig and setup planning, catering to recording, gigging, podcasting and other use cases.
- Gear comparisons, based on each shopper’s individual needs.
- Inventory statuses, filtering recommended gear by what stores have available on a given day.
- Support across languages, speaking to customers in their desired language without adjustments to settings.
- Insights meant to help customers understand gear setups, including concepts such as analog versus digital or tube versus solid-state.
Guitar Center’s focus on technology
Rig Center’s launch comes almost a year after Guitar Center made a key hire on its executive team, naming Adolfo Rodriguez to take over as its executive vice president, chief technology and information officer. Rodriguez arrived following work at Advance Auto Parts, Citrix and IBM.
At the time, Dalporto praised Rodriguez’s “expertise in core retail systems and processes and his passion for transforming the customer experience.”
Rig Advisor is currently available for use at Guitar Center stores across the U.S., according to the retailer.
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