Retailers are increasingly diving deep into artificial intelligence and just days after Mango announced its new AI-based Mango Stylist personalisation tool, Debenhams Group had a big announcement of its own.
As well as renewing its existing deal with Amazon Web Services (AWS) it has extended it with the new multi-year agreement designed “to scale up its AI-driven tools” across the e-tailer’s brands including Debenhams, PrettyLittleThing, Boohoo, BoohooMAN and Karen Millen.
The tech has been tested extensively by the Debenhams brand itself and its labels, and the group will now embed AWS technology across its other brands, with Boohoo the first to adopt AWS’s AI technologies “in a matter of weeks”.
The deal will “accelerate the group’s adoption of AI to drive business growth and enhance the customer shopping experience,” we’re told, but what will it actually involve?
The company said that by using advanced technologies like Generative AI (GenAI), the link-up will help it streamline its operations and rapidly scale new brands using AI-driven tools.
For instance, it means automated descriptions of thousands of products, which the company said will speed up the process 20-fold. Then there’s an interactive AI Room Styler that offers personalised decor suggestions linking directly to shoppable listings, while AI-powered product attribution and taxonomy is being used to “improve search and navigation, helping customers discover relevant products faster”.
It already uses AWS cloud services on the Debenhams platform with AWS’s server-less cloud technology powering its successful marketplace model “by facilitating the faster onboarding of third-party sellers, a broader product selection and an effortless purchasing journey”.
Now, AI-generated content, powered by Amazon Bedrock – a fully managed service that makes it easy to build and scale GenAI applications – is what will enable Debenhams Group to automate product descriptions and translations across tens of thousands of products, “improving consistency, localisation and speed to market”.
Its translations into six languages now happen automatically, so no extra work is needed. “This means products are ready to sell in different countries much quicker,” it said.
Dan Finley, CEO of Debenhams Group, was understandably upbeat: “Collaborating with AWS is a key part of our long-term strategy to transform Debenhams Group into a modern, technology-led retailer. We’ve successfully replaced outdated legacy systems with scalable, cloud-first architecture that’s adaptable, resilient and built to support innovation well into the group’s future.”
And perhaps addressing worries over jobs, he added: “Our strategic investment in AI and emerging technologies will not only future-proof the business, but create a faster, smarter and more personalised experience for our customers. Working closely with a hand-picked team of engineers and AWS specialists, together, we’re not only accelerating our digital road-map, but making Debenhams Group an exciting place to work for the next generation of tech talent.”
Meanwhile Duncan Stewart, head of Retail & Consumer Packaged Goods UK & Ireland at AWS, said: “By leveraging the flexibility and scalability of the cloud, Debenhams Group now has the technology foundations to quickly build and deploy innovative new AI-powered products and services across all of its brands, which will help drive business productivity and growth.”
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