Victoria’s Secret, the iconic lingerie and beauty retailer, announced an ambitious new partnership with Google Cloud to leverage AI in transformational ways across its business. The multi-year collaboration aims to elevate customer experiences, drive operational efficiencies, and accelerate Victoria’s Secret’s strategic growth initiatives.
Central to the partnership is implementing AI solutions to make Victoria’s Secret’s online shopping experiences more personalized and inclusive. Utilizing Google Cloud’s Vertex AI platform, Victoria’s Secret plans to introduce an AI-powered conversational assistant on its website and mobile app. Envisioned as a virtual shopper advisor, the chatbot would offer customized product recommendations and tailored advice to each customer.
A new AI-powered product search feature will enable customers to upload images of desired products, such as a specific style of bra, and receive recommendations for similar items available in the current lineup.
“Whether a customer is a sports enthusiast, nursing mother, breast cancer survivor, or simply wanting a new bra, we will leverage AI to replicate our in-store associate interactions with empathy and care,” said Chris Rupp, Victoria’s Secret's Chief Customer Officer.
The AI assistant exemplifies Victoria’s Secret’s push towards next-generation technologies for enhancing customer engagement. The company is also exploring innovations like more predictive search and product discovery features leveraging Vertex AI Search tools.
The timing aligns with Victoria’s Secret's recent acquisition of direct-to-consumer brand AdoreMe, which already leverages AI and shares Victoria’s Secret’s goal of digitally-driven growth. AdoreMe’s existing generative AI capabilities using Google Cloud streamline full integration across VS&Co’s portfolio of brands.
Beyond customer experience, Victoria’s Secret will harness AI to optimize business operations. This ranges from supply chain forecasting with Vertex AI, to analyzing customer sentiment for accelerating product development cycles. Resources like Cloud's Looker business intelligence tool will help visualize trends.
For human resources, Google’s generative AI holds promise for automating onboarding and training programs, administrative tasks, and more. Victoria’s Secret is also leveraging computer vision for an AI-powered visual product search allowing shoppers to upload images to find recommendations. Launched in 2023, this builds on an existing foundation of AI-driven innovation.