Google’s AI-Powered Virtual Try-On: A New Era for Fashion E-Commerce
By Enrico Fantaguzzi, Editor-in-Chief, Digital Fashion Academy
May 23rd 2025
At Google I/O 2025, the tech giant unveiled a significant upgrade to its AI Mode shopping experience: a powerful virtual try-on feature that allows users to upload their own photos and visualize garments on their bodies. Powered by advanced generative AI, the system simulates fabric fit and texture across various body types, promising a new level of personalization in online shopping.
This development has the potential to be a game-changer for fashion e-commerce. But beyond the consumer-facing benefits, what does this mean for marcas de moda, especially those navigating the complexities of digital transformation?
Organizational Impact
Fashion brands will need to rethink how they organize their product content. To fully take advantage of AI-powered platforms like Google’s, brands must invest in rich, structured product data, including detailed images, accurate sizing information, and standardized metadata. Product photography will likely need to evolve to include multi-angle, high-resolution, and fabric-dynamic visuals that AI models can effectively process.
Furthermore, cross-functional teams, marketing, merchandising, IT, and customer experience, will need to collaborate more closely to align content creation, technology integration, and user experience. This may drive brands to create or expand dedicated digital innovation teams.
Business Strategy Implications
From a business perspective, these AI tools could significantly impact conversion rates, return rates, e customer satisfaction. By reducing the uncertainty associated with fit and appearance, virtual try-on tools may decrease returns, one of the biggest operational costs in online fashion retail.
Additionally, AI-powered personalization could improve fidelização de clientes by offering a more tailored experience. Brands that successfully integrate these tools may also gain a competitive edge in SEO and product discoverability, especially if they are early adopters and featured in Google Shopping results.
However, brands must also consider data privacy, AI ethics, and moderation challenges. Reports have already highlighted potential misuses of generative AI in retail contexts, including the generation of hypersexualized imagery. This underlines the need for responsible implementation, clear user safeguards, and rigorous testing before adopting such features at scale.
O caminho à frente
As AI redefines how consumers interact with products online, fashion companies must evolve, not just in terms of tech adoption, but in mindset and internal workflows. This is not just a marketing opportunity, but a strategic inflection point: the brands that adapt their structures, teams, and processes for a digitally immersive future will be the ones that thrive.
Supporting and integrating with third party applications such as Google AI or ChatGPT is just a first step in a digital transformation process that need to create value for the customer
Enrico Fantaguzzi
However, supporting and integrating third party applications such as Google AI or ChatGPT is just a first step in a digital transformation process that need to create value for the customer. Google’s “Shopping Graph now has more than 50 billion product listings, from global retailers to local mom and pop shops, each with details like reviews, prices, color options and availability”, so that customers have more options to select from, however people don’t just buy a new product everytime they go on a trip or to a party, therefore customers should be allowed to integrate the AI features within their own wardrobe. This would allow people to integrate their current selection of garments with new products that their missing. This step is critical for user experience but also to create a sustainable digital fashion industry,
At Digital Fashion Academy, we believe that understanding and leveraging these technologies is no longer optional, it’s essential. We’ll continue to monitor these developments and support fashion professionals with the knowledge and skills needed to lead in the age of AI.
Sources
- Google Blog: AI Mode and Virtual Try-On Update
- The Atlantic: Google’s Shopping Tool and AI Image Ethics
- Google I/O 2025 Recap (for context on product announcements)
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