Research Briefing: Amazon’s new AI tool attempts to solve brands’ sizing problems
In this edition of the weekly research briefing, we examine how Amazon’s new AI tool, Fit Insights, aims to help brands’ fix their sizing problems, and we look at how marketers are using third-party AI technology, as seen in data from Modern Retail+ Research.
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Brands’ third-party AI options expand with Amazon’s new tool
Breaking News: Amazon recently released Fit Insights, an AI tool that provides brands with feedback about product sizing and fit in order to help them improve future products. The tool gathers insights from customer reviews and returns about fabric, style and return rates and provides that information to brands so that they can adjust upcoming designs and garment sizes. Amazon hopes to reduce “bracketing” – when customers order multiple sizes of an item to find the right size and return the rest. At the moment, Fit Insights is available for free to U.S.-based brands that sell on Amazon.
Questions: How is brands’ use of AI technology evolving? What is the role of third-party AI providers?
Answers From Research:
Since 2022, the percentage of marketers working with third-party vendors for AI solutions has increased from 53% to 62%, Modern Retail’s survey found. And the proportion of marketers both building in-house tools while also using third-party vendors has decreased from 31% to 20%. Many marketers have opted to outsource their tool-building needs rather than build the tools themselves, as third-party AI solutions have become incredibly polished and sophisticated over the last year. In fact, there is an ongoing race among tech companies to create the latest and greatest AI tools for a growing market of clients.
Savio Rodrigues, vp of ecosystem engineering and developer advocacy at IBM, said he’s noticed a greater focus recently on skilling and offering embeddable AI technology. “There is a tech skills shortage, and most businesses also do not have the time and financial resources to build, manage and provide the ongoing support required to develop these AI models from scratch,” Rodrigues said.
Want to learn more: Modern Retail+ Research’s State of AI report examines the current and future direction of AI technology.
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