Dive Brief:
- Warby Parker is using AI to bring its in-store experience online with the introduction of Advisor, an AI tool for its iOS app that gives personalized recommendations to help customers pick frames, the company announced on Tuesday.
- Through the app, users scan their face to receive frame recommendations based on style preferences and face shape, width and nose bridge.
- Warby Parker also entered a partnership with Google earlier this month to develop AI-powered glasses for all-day wear. The companies plan to release the intelligent eyewear next year.
Dive Insight:
Advisor is the latest in Warby Parker’s suite of digital tools, including its virtual vision test and virtual try-on, intended to make it easier to buy eyewear entirely online. Its most recent investment takes the shopping experience a step beyond virtual try-on, offering more shopping guidance across multiple decisions in the eyewear-buying process.
Dave Gilboa, co-founder and co-CEO of Warby Parker, said in a statement that early feedback and engagement on the AI tool available on the iOS app has been “overwhelmingly positive.”
For the new partnership bringing AI to frames, Google has committed up to $150 million, including a $75 million equity investment in Warby Parker. Another $75 million will go towards Warby Parker’s product development and commercialization costs.
The line of intelligent eyewear will incorporate multimodal AI with prescription and non-prescription lenses. The companies are working to develop future smart glasses with plans to launch a series of products over time.
Warby Parker recently posted its first quarterly net profit since going public, according to a recent earnings call. Earlier this year, the company also announced eyewear shop-in-shops with Target stores in Illinois, Minnesota, New Jersey, Ohio and Pennsylvania.