New Way Now: OTTO brings real-time voice shopping to its app with Google Cloud

*Featured in this video:* Volker Carlguth, Senior Product Manager at OTTO and Jens Kürsten, Senior Expert Search Technology at OTTO

*Executive summary:* OTTO, the largest German online retailer featuring over 19 million products and more than 6,000 partner merchants, collaborated with Google Cloud to transform its customer shopping experience. By shifting from a traditional keyword search that answers in generic product lists to an interactive AI shopping assistant, OTTO enables customers to engage in natural, real-time voice and conversational shopping consultations directly within their app.

*Challenge:* Shoppers need personalized guidance rather than sifting through thousands of search results to find the right products. OTTO’s previous setup relied on standard product lists, leaving customers on their own to filter, compare, and discover items without tailored advice.

*Solution:* Using Google Cloud’s Gemini Enterprise, OTTO integrated a real-time voice shopping assistant directly into its app to complement traditional search. The platform runs a parallel architecture where Gemini Native Live Audio manages natural spoken dialogues, while an OTTO-developed orchestrator executes tool calls, enforces guardrails, and triggers tailored product recommendations. Hosted entirely on Google Cloud, this setup allows shoppers to explain complex needs naturally and receive personalized advice in real time.

*Results:* Live in the OTTO app, the voice assistant drove a dramatic rise in customer engagement and satisfaction. Shoppers shared far richer context via voice, averaging 8 detailed messages per session compared to 3 in text mode. Consequently, customers felt significantly better understood, rated the assistant as more competent, and received clearer explanations for personalized product recommendations.

*Key takeaways and highlights:*

→ “The search was and still is one of the most important tools at OTTO, but it is of course also limited. When I want real advice, I don't want static lists. I want to have a dialogue. And that’s exactly the gap we wanted to fill.” (Volker Carlguth, Senior Product Manager at OTTO)

→ “In our setup, several models run in parallel. On the one hand Gemini, on the other hand our orchestrator. The orchestrator takes care of tool calls, product recommendations and also guardrails. And Gemini Native Live Audio conducts the dialogue with our customers in real time.”(Jens Kürsten, Senior Expert Search Technology at OTTO)

→ “In 2023, we had already done the first experiments with Google. But a lot has happened in the last year in particular. This means that Gemini has developed incredibly, especially when it comes to language processing. With Gemini Enterprise, we really have a very good platform to host models and also our agents.” (Volker Carlguth, Senior Product Manager at OTTO)

*Google Cloud products used:* Gemini platform, Gemini Live API (Native Audio), Gemini 2.5 Flash, Gemini 3 Pro, Chirp 3

*Learn more:*
→ A product marketplace that listens: OTTO built a voice shopping AI across 19 million products https://cloud.google.com/customers/otto-voice-shopping-ai

→ Gemini platform: Innovate, build, and deploy enterprise ready agents and apps https://cloud.google.com/products/gemini-enterprise-agent-platform