How Google Is Letting Shoppers Try On Clothes Virtually Using AI
Google has been working on a new virtual try-on feature that can help shoppers decide if a piece of clothing will look good on them before they buy it from the comfort of their homes. The tech giant explained that the new feature uses generative AI (of course) to show clothes on a vast number of body types.
This amazing feature will not only help shoppers get an idea of how an item would look on them, but they will also be able to find out how the dress will fold, cling or stretch, and whether it forms any wrinkles, as per CNN.
Google will also launch a feature that will use an AI-backed visual matching algorithm to help users search for similar pieces of clothing in different colors, patterns, or styles from merchants across the web,
The 'Virtual Try On' Feature
Google's online survey found that 42% of online shoppers did not feel represented by the people modeling clothing while 59% felt disappointed with an item that they bought online.
The try-on option was developed using several pairs of images of more than 80 diverse models standing in different positions, according to Google. The women, who belonged to different ethnic backgrounds, ranged from sizes XS to XL. They also had varying skin tones and body shapes. The AI-powered tool was then instructed to match the shape of certain clothes in those positions to help it learn how to generate realistic images of a person in different profiles.
Is The Feature Compatible With All Clothing Brands?
As of now, only women will be able to use the feature to virtually try on tops from some specific brands including Loft, Anthropology, H&M, and Everlane. However, Google plans to expand its tech to men's shirts in the future. The tool, with the help of machine learning, will also improve with time.
Refining a Product To Find What You Need
Google says that this tool will also be able to help you with certain shopping needs such as finding the same jacket you like for a lower price or in a similar pattern. The new "guided refinement" will help shoppers "fine-tune" available products until they find exactly what they are looking for. One can refine inputs like color, style, and also material.
Google's Efforts To Defend Its Search Engine From AI Threat
At the Google I/O developer conference held in May, the tech giant spent substantial time discussing a long list of upcoming AI features including access to its existing chatbot, Bard, and adding new AI chat features to Google Search. There has been a spurt in AI-based products from the tech giant following the overnight success of its rival Microsoft's ChatGPT tool.
Is Any Other E-Commerce Company Using AI For Shopping?
Yes, Google isn't the only one! E-commerce companies like Shopify and Instacart are also using the new technology to help shoppers make sound decisions.
Meanwhile, Amazon is experimenting with using artificial intelligence to summarize consumer feedback about the products on its site. EBay has also brought an AI tool that will help sellers generate product listing descriptions on the site.
Ways AI Is Changing Online Shopping
Creating Customer-Centric Search: One major problem that we, as shoppers face, is the fact that everything is generalized and not catering to our specific needs. However, AI is going to change that for us, as one can easily get an optimum result based on the application of machine learning.
Improve Recommendations: The smart and efficient work done by AI, helps the internet to throw the best-suited items as recommendations on our web pages.
Virtual Personal Shopper: E-commerce sites have already taken a few steps ahead to create an online assistant who can solve our fashion problems. It can be tiring to scroll through millions of options, what better than somebody who will be able to shortlist it for us?