Gap rolls out new conversational AI shopping, virtual try-on features
Gap Inc. continues efforts to transform its customer experience with leading-edge artificial intelligence.
The specialty apparel giant is building on the AI-based product search and shopping functionality it offers customers. Following are highlights of Gap’s latest initiatives, including partnerships with third-party platforms, to AI-enable its enterprise.
Conversational discovery and shopping
At its Old Navy and Banana Republic banners, Gap is launching new AI-based conversational tools that allow customers to describe what they are looking for in natural language and receive relevant product ideas and recommendations. According to Gap, the experiences are designed to better understand customer intent and help shoppers move more naturally from an idea to products that fit what they had in mind.
In addition, Gap Inc. products are now discoverable via the AI-based fashion discovery platform Daydream, where shoppers describe what they are looking for in everyday language to help discover relevant products.
Virtual styling
The Gap banner is also partnering with the Alta Daily 3D styling app to enable customers to virtually try on its products on their Alta avatar. Gap also offers proprietary virtual try-on of apparel products using technology that originated from Drapr, a startup that enables customers to create 3D avatars and virtually try on clothing which the company acquired in 2021.
In addition, earlier this year the company began offering personalized size recommendations and other insights within conversational experiences leveraging Bold Metrics’ Agent Sizing Protocol.
“The milestone reflects a much bigger evolution,” said Sven Gerjets, CTO, Gap Inc., in an address at the SF Tech Week event in San Francisco. “Over three decades, Gap Inc. has moved from e-commerce to mobile, social and omnichannel retail, continually adapting as technology, culture and customer expectations have changed. Today, AI represents another opportunity to rethink the customer journey. Thirty years ago, we launched gap.com, revolutionizing the way customers interacted with our brands, and today AI is creating a new opportunity to rethink how people shop for fashion. We’re moving toward experiences that better understand the customer and can help connect discovery, inspiration and ultimately action in a more frictionless, intuitive way.”
Gap builds on AI-native commerce
Gap is in the midst of an enterprise AI transformation. Through Google’s “Universal Commerce Protocol” (UCP), Gap previously said it will be able to meet its customers wherever they choose to shop, with products ready for seamless checkout across emerging AI-native environments.
Shoppers will be able to purchase products across Gap’s portfolio of brands directly while using and searching in AI Mode in Google Search and the Gemini app, without having to be redirected to Gap’s website. Gap will take care of the shipping and any other logistics.
[READ MORE: Google expands capabilities of Agentic commerce standard]
As many retailers continue to test isolated AI use cases, Gap said it has rebuilt its digital foundation to support AI end-to-end. Built on unified Google Cloud data, AI-ready architecture, and disciplined governance, the company said it is scaling intelligence across every journey as part of its operating model.
“Over time, we expect AI to move commerce beyond recommendation toward experiences that can better understand customer needs and help act on their behalf,” said Gerjets. “Gap Inc. is building the data, technology and partnerships needed to participate in that emerging ecosystem responsibly and at scale, while keeping customer choice, human creativity, and brand relationships at the center. The interface will continue to evolve, but our principle stays the same: start with the customer and use technology to create a better experience.”
Founded in 1969 and based in San Francisco, Gap Inc. is the largest specialty apparel company in America, operating the Gap, Old Navy, Banana Republic, and Athleta banners.
