AI is going to be very important in the future of online shopping, but businesses will have to learn a lot quickly.
AI models are not all the same, and what works in one field might not work in another, especially if the training data for the model is different. Changeable models like Meta’s Llama 2 allow organizations to solve problems using company data.
Still, unique models can be pricey and hard to get just right. This is what inspired Frank Faricy, founder and CEO of the company XGen AI, to create AI systems that are easy for retail brands to use.
The New York City-based company came out of secret this week. During that time, companies like Golden Goose, Khaite, and Sonos tested its technology in beta. The platform gives retail clients a library of AI models designed specifically for e-commerce that they can use to make their own AI platforms. These platforms will improve the customer experience by giving them more accurate search results and product suggestions.
XGen AI has raised $16 million and teamed up with Amazon Web Services to sell its technology since it began in 2020. Faricy says that XGen AI has had more than 200 talks with businesses that want to use the technology in the last three weeks.
Because the platform is “composable,” e-commerce teams don’t have to hire developers or machine learning engineers to set up the technology. They can do it themselves. Beta testers stated their AI took an hour. Based on information gathered from these businesses, the average order value went up by 4 to 18% and the income per user went up by 5 to 15%.
AI-powered Shopping Made Easy
The platform’s goods, XSearch, XRecommend, and XGenerate, offer personalized search results and suggestions by guessing what a customer might like based on Artificial Intelligence. Regardless of the product feed language, XGen can translate its results into 110 languages.
XGen isn’t the first company to offer AI-powered search for e-commerce sites. For example, Lily AI tools make real suggestions when asked to do so in a conversational way. A semantic search tool was just added to Shopify for its merchants. What if a customer says, “I want to look like Barbie?” An AI-powered search can show them pink clothes like dresses and skirts. People who look for “a dress to wear to the Oscars” might find long, sparkly ball gowns.
Faricy says that XGen can help stores make search results more relevant to each person. “You can have a million people asking the same question and it can change [the results] to adjust to who we think you are,” Faricy explains. To protect customers’ privacy, XGen has computers that are only for them. Businesses can also put in place safeguards to stop harmful or offensive words from working. Faricy wouldn’t say how much e-commerce businesses should pay for the technology because the price changes based on how much traffic the business gets or how many goods it sells.
As e-commerce sites try to get more sales and keep customers longer, creative AI tools may help brick-and-mortar stores make more money with the help of technology.
FAQs
Retailers often struggle to develop custom AI tools due to technical complexity and high costs. This startup aims to simplify the process, making AI tool creation more accessible and affordable.
The startup likely offers a platform or software that allows retailers to build AI tools without extensive coding knowledge. This could involve pre-built templates, drag-and-drop interfaces, and intuitive workflows.
