Fashion and lifestyle brand powerhouse Ralph Lauren has launched an AI agent that provides styling inspiration and outfit recommendations to consumer shoppers. Ask Ralph, as it’s called, is a conversational bot that utilizes natural language processing to comprehend prompts, interpret context, and provide suggestions to users, much like a human stylist would. The agent is currently only available in Ralph Lauren’s mobile app to those in the U.S.
The company developed Ask Ralph in collaboration with Microsoft, both firms having enjoyed a decades-long partnership. The agent is powered by Microsoft’s Azure OpenAI, a cloud-based service that provides access to OpenAI’s language models, such as GPT-4, GPT-3.5-Turbo, and GPT-3.5. Additionally, the platform offers organizations enterprise-grade security.
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“Twenty-five years ago, we partnered with Microsoft to launch one of the fashion industry’s first e-commerce platforms, and today, we are once again redefining the shopping experience for the next generation,” David Lauren, Ralph Lauren Corporation’s chief branding and innovation officer, said in a statement. “Ask Ralph is about more than just discovery—it is about engaging consumers with what they love most about Ralph Lauren: our iconic, unique take on style, providing timeless head-to-toe looks that inspire them to step into our world.”
Shoppers will use and converse with Ask Ralph in the same manner as they would with a human employee in front of them. With a “simple, conversational” prompt such as “What should I wear to a concert?” or “How can I style my navy-blue men’s blazer?” the agent should respond, but not with a text-based answer. The fashion company states the bot will return with a visual layout of an attire for you, complete with styling tips and related content from across Ralph Lauren’s digital channels. However, if the shopper isn’t satisfied, Ask Ralph accepts follow-up questions to refine its recommendations.
“AI is transforming the way consumers get inspired, educated, and purchase from fashion brands around the world,” Shelley Bransten, Microsoft’s corporate vice president of global industry solutions, explained in a statement.
An AI-powered stylist bot appears to be a suitable use case for agents in the retail space. But Ralph Lauren isn’t the first to use such a tool:
- Amazon’s expert shopping assistant, Rufus, launched in 2024 with knowledge of the e-commerce marketplace’s product catalog, customer reviews, community Q&As, and other information gleaned from the web
- Controversial Chinese fashion retailer SHEIN is reportedly using AI to create new products
- Sephora turned to AI and augmented reality to help customers buy cosmetics, launching Virtual Artist in 2018
- Nordstrom enhanced its mobile app last year for the holidays, utilizing generative AI to provide personalized product recommendations to shoppers based on their habits and preferences.
Ralph Lauren is no stranger to experimenting with new technologies. In the past, it has toyed with interactive and virtual shopping technology, holograms, 4D projections, and CGI animations. But how will Ask Ralph perform? Business leaders are concerned about the viability of AI use cases, as noted in a recent research study conducted by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s NANDA initiative.
Microsoft isn’t immune to the pressure either. If Wall Street analysts and pundits are skeptical of Salesforce’s Agentforce platform, how long before such scrutiny is turned towards Microsoft’s way? It has made a lot of noise about agents over the past year, and like other tech firms, Microsoft needs to prove that its platform can generate real results.
Featured Image: Screenshots showing Ask Ralph, Ralph Lauren's AI style assistant. Credit: Ralph Lauren Corporation
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