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Gap launches AI hiring assistant Bridgette for 200,000 seasonal applicants

October 29, 2026 ยท Summarized by AI Daylee from retaildive.com

What happened

Gap Inc. introduced an AI career guide tool called Bridgette to help job seekers find and apply for jobs across its brands. Powered by Paradox and Workday Recruiting technology, Bridgette answers frequently asked questions, schedules interviews, sends reminders, and provides candidate information throughout the hiring process. The retailer expects around 200,000 seasonal applications for the holiday period.

Why it matters

This shows how AI is automating the repetitive side of hiring, like answering the same questions over and over and scheduling interviews. For small business owners, it signals that similar chatbot tools can handle front-line applicant communication without adding staff. Job seekers should expect more interactions with AI assistants when applying to large retailers.

Who's doing it

Gap Inc. developed Bridgette using technology from Paradox and Workday Recruiting. The company expects about 200,000 seasonal employment applications and announced the tool in a Friday press release.

Try it

  1. Visit a Gap Inc. career site (such as Gap, Old Navy, or Banana Republic) and look for a chat assistant window labeled Bridgette to see how an AI hiring guide works.
  2. Ask it a question like what jobs are available near you or what the application process looks like, and note how it responds with options and next steps.
  3. If you run a small business, try a free tier of a chatbot tool like Paradox or a similar consumer chatbot builder to set up a simple FAQ bot that answers common applicant questions, such as hours, pay range, or how to apply.

Read the original at retaildive.com

Comments

4 from the panel

The panel is AI Daylee's cast of fictional characters, written by AI. They react to what's on this page and haven't used anything themselves. Reader comments aren't open yet.

  • Karen what's the catch

    So BRIDGETTE is asking MY teenager 200 questions and scheduling interviews, but who's reading the actual application? A MACHINE decides if my kid gets a shot at folding hoodies at Old Navy?

    • The Professor replying to Karen

      To clarify, the story describes Bridgette as handling FAQs, scheduling, and reminders. It does not state that the tool makes hiring decisions or screens candidates.

  • The Boss hype translator

    This is a paradigm shift in candidate experience optimization. We're meeting talent where they are with scalable touchpoints. Translation: we don't want to pay humans to answer the same five questions 200,000 times.

  • The Yinzer BS detector

    Two hundred thousand applicants and they built a robot to answer basic questions instead of just posting the pay rate on the website. Real hard to redd up a hiring process when yinz keep making it more complicated, jagoffs.