Artificial intelligence as a tool is both endlessly knowledgeable and inherently limited. Few experts in any field can match its sheer capacity for amassing and categorizing data and search results, but most AI-enabled programs lack the refined taste and insights that can be provided by a true expert. For creative endeavors like music for example, AI might not be able to craft a symphony, but it might be ideally adapted to determine which flute is going to be best for a particular musician to play Mozart in a specific concert hall.

Guitar Center doesn’t sell flutes for symphonies, but its AI tool, called Rig Advisor, promises to build and combine custom musical gear, according to each customer’s preferences and inspirations. It can account for specific requests, such as for an amp that supports louder sounds or a guitar that matches a particular tonal range. Akin to a professional, human consultant, Rig Advisor can provide suggestions, but it can do so faster and on immediate demand, even when the physical stores are closed.

In introducing this capability—the first in its market space to do so—Guitar Center noted that it represented the first step in a new, multi-phase business strategy. The first phase involves introducing Rig Advisor, based on the retailer’s ongoing research into and development of intelligent tools that can help it boost sales. The second phase promises to support more experiential retail experiences, by integrating in-store QR codes with the retailer’s app, then using those connected touchpoints to inform Rig Advisor further. Already, Rig Advisor is able to comment on specific products, based on the corresponding codes, and then generate responses and recommendations related to that specific product, in relation to the customer’s specific criteria. Notably, the technology also supports some old-fashioned retail needs, like ensuring that a recommended product is actually in stock in a given location.

To achieve truly effective recommendations though, Rig Advisor necessarily must depend on additional data, reviews, and feedback from consumers, who can describe their own experiences with the app itself, as well as the products it suggested to them. Accordingly, more complicated queries still might require assistance from a human guitar expert, who leverages the technology as needed.

Discussion Questions

1. Weighing the likely time and energy invested in developing such a specific piece of technology for a niche market, against the potential benefit of being the first adopter in its space, does this seem like a wise investment for Guitar Center?
2. What sort of queries will be the true test of the technology’s benefits and limitations? What type of answers could a potential customer have that would be hardest for most artificial intelligence to answer?

Sources: Xanayra Marin-Lopez, “Guitar Center Brings AI Assistant to the Store Floor,” Retail Dive, July 24, 2025; Crystal Koe, “Meet Rig Advisor, Guitar Center’s New In-Store AI Shopping Assistant: ‘It’s Like Having a Professional Gear Consultant in the Palm of Your Hand’,” Guitar.com, July 22, 2025, https://guitar.com/news/music-news/guitar-center-rig-advisor-ai-shopping/; Matt Owens, “‘Like Having a Professional Gear Consultant in the Palm of Your Hand’: Guitar Center Introduces Rig Advisor, the Guitar World’s First-Ever AI Shopping Assistant,” Guitarist, July 21, 2025.