Is Daydream's AI Platform the Answer to Fashion's Discovery Problem?
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The Daydream team has a refrain that's guided the AI shopping platform's user experience since it began building: 'Say more.'
Looking for a red dress? Say more. Is it for a wedding? A work conference? Where will you wear it, and what time of year? Do you like a low-cut or a high neck? Cocktail length or gown? Be as specific as possible, and as you circle in on what you're really looking for, Daydream's artificial intelligence-powered, chat-based shopping agent will generate relevant results.
This 'say more' style of shopping is what Daydream believes will change the way we find what we want to buy. Julie Bornstein, Daydream CEO and founder, has been in the business of search for 25 years, including those spent at Nordstrom in its early e-commerce days, then Stitch Fix, Sephora and her first startup, The Yes, which was sold to Pinterest in 2022 before being subsequently shut down by the social platform. The Yes was a sort of predecessor to Daydream, Bornstein concedes, but large language modelling and AI technology has come so far since she launched that company in 2020 that the user experiences are completely different, she says. Last year, Bornstein raised $50 million to build Daydream, co-led by investors Forerunner Ventures and Index Ventures, with a founding team including chief brands officer Lisa Yamner Green, chief product officer Dan Cary and chief strategy officer Richard Kim.
Today, Daydream is going live with a beta version at Daydream.ing that Bornstein says is ready to start providing product recommendations using its generative AI shopping tool. An app will come later this summer. Users answer a set of questions to create their 'style passport', such as what brands they like and what sizes they wear, among other shopping proclivities.
Then, they can start chatting. Daydream's AI interface will be familiar to anyone who's experimented with ChatGPT, but its overall feel is more e-commerce retailer-meets-Tumblr feed. As you tell the AI what you're looking for, Daydream will pull matching results from its 8,500 brands (some listed directly, others through retailers) and more than two million products, across womenswear, menswear and accessories, with launch partners including Net-a-Porter, Alo Yoga, Loveshackfancy, Markarian, Khaite, Emilia Wickstead, Mytheresa, Cult Mia, Mejuri, Uniqlo and Dôen.
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