By Kasturi Datta |
Fashion retailer Asos has introduced a conversation-based AI agent that provides customers with a personal stylist experience.
‘AI Stylist’ is a conversational shopping experience that provides consumers with inspiration, without the need to conduct keyword searches and scroll through pages of products.
“Personalisation has existed, but it was very basic. AI allows us to move much further than that,” said Jose Antonio Ramos, CEO of Asos. “These days, customers want increasingly personalised and interactive experiences, not just stock availability.”
“You engage in a conversation with the stylist,” says Przemek Czarnecki, chief technology officer at Asos. “You explain your needs, the context of the purchase – whether that’s a wedding in May, a city break, or a new-job wardrobe refresh – and what’s worked for you in the past. The longer you engage, the more context the stylist understands.”
The agent is one of several initiatives emerging from the partnership between Asos and Microsoft. For example, Asos is using Microsoft 365 Copilot to reduce administrative burden for over 3,000 of its employees, with approximately 50 per cent of Asos customer enquiries are now handled by agents.
Asos is also using Microsoft Datalake and Power BI to centralise its data on fashion trends and changes in customer behaviour, to enable faster decision-making across all enterprise teams via dashboards and reporting tools.
“AI helps us find ideas faster and increases the productivity of our designers,” said Jose Antonio Ramos, CEO of Asos. “We go from idea to shelf in about three weeks.”
Asos and Microsoft have together identified 93 potential use cases for agentic AI.
It is also using Dynamics 365 Finance & Operations and AI agents to simplify and automate core back-office processes – like invoicing, inventory management and purchasing.
“Reducing complexity and improving operational efficiency will not only cut costs but help Asos grow faster,” said Czarnecki.
“What many companies struggle with is having multiple sources of the same information. Bringing data into one central repository creates massive simplification,” said Czarnecki.
Read more about the partnership on the Microsoft UK Stories website.