Fanatics, OpenAI tool lifts engagement as AI product discovery lags

· Retail & E-commerce · United States

Fanatics has revamped its outfit-curation tool with OpenAI, and a new version of its Shop the Look feature generated 10% higher engagement in a pilot, Retail Dive reported. The retailer is betting that AI-assisted styling can convert browsers into buyers. At the same time, separate research reported by Retail Dive found that most consumers are not yet using AI for product discovery, and that retailers should focus on the quality of their product metadata to prepare for a predicted upswing in AI usage. Together the two reports sketch a gap between early AI commerce wins and mainstream adoption: tools can lift engagement among users, but most shoppers still find products the old way, making clean, structured product data a prerequisite for broader AI-driven discovery.

Why it matters：AI shopping assistants are becoming a new front in e-commerce, but their payoff depends on how well retailers structure product data — a quiet operational shift that will separate winners.

Key points

  • Fanatics' new Shop the Look pilot saw 10% higher engagement.
  • The tool was built with OpenAI.
  • Most consumers still don't use AI for product discovery, research found.

Sources (original reporting)

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