How Behr Is Fighting 'Paint Paralysis' With AI

According to a survey commissioned by American paint brand Behr, most home improvement shoppers draw color inspiration from social media — whether they're planning to paint themselves or hire a pro. Yet 40% of respondents called choosing a color the hardest part of the project, and another 40% said that same indecision is why they never start the project at all. Andi Lopes, Behr's recently promoted chief marketing officer, calls this "paint paralysis."

The brand tried to tackle the problem with a campaign launched this spring: a hotline where popular real estate and DIY bloggers answered questions about paint and home renovation. A promotional video featuring several bloggers with millions of followers drew more than 13,000 likes on Instagram and TikTok, and according to the company, more than 3,400 people called the hotline. Lopes says the idea worked because it tapped into a nostalgic social media trend and paired it with genuinely useful help.

The second solution is ChatHue, an AI assistant built in partnership with Google Cloud. Launched in July 2025, the tool runs on Behr's color database along with Google's Gemini, Vertex AI, BigQuery, and Cloud Run technologies, delivering personalized color recommendations to shoppers. Lopes stresses that ChatHue doesn't solve everything — it's focused on one specific problem: choosing between colors. In March, the tool gained a color visualization feature, letting shoppers see far more accurately how a color will actually look in a real room than a text recommendation ever could. That change boosted customer satisfaction by 15%.

Behr's core audience is millennial and Gen Z homeowners tackling renovation projects, along with Hispanic consumers who have increasingly taken up home improvement in recent years. A long-running exclusive partnership with Home Depot has also given the brand access to a professional audience — contractors. The strategy's success depends on close collaboration between the marketing, product, finance, and sales teams, as well as partners at Home Depot: the company recently relaunched its website, turning it from a plain online store into a "color destination" and moving e-commerce entirely over to the Home Depot site.

Consumer expectations of brands are rising every day, Lopes says, which is pushing marketing leaders to start every decision with a deep understanding of consumer needs and behavior. When every function operates from a shared understanding of the consumer, it becomes a clear win for the company — better decisions, stronger innovation, and a smoother experience all the way from product creation to purchase.