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Let’s face it. Shopping for clothes online is a drag. The online shopping experience hasn’t changed much since Amazon started selling books online three decades ago. If you’re searching for a new blazer or dress, you’ll type keywords into Google or a retailer’s search bar, then scan through rows of inventory. Often, the first results you’ll see will be posts sponsored by brands, rather than results tailored to your needs. But even though shopping for fashion on the internet is laborious and clunky, it is now the status quo: Some 48% of all fashion retail sales worldwide happen on e-commerce, equivalent to $883.1 billion in revenue. Retail veteran Julie Bornstein, who helped build e-commerce platforms for Sephora and Stitch Fix, wants to transform the way you shop online. Today, she launches a new platform called Daydream, an AI-powered chat-based shopping agent devoted specifically to fashion. Daydream’s founding team brings together executives who previously worked at Google, Microsoft, Meta, Amazon, Farfetch, and other tech firms. It raised $50 million in seed funding from Forerunner Ventures, Index Ventures, Tre Ventures, and Google Ventures. Julie Bornstein [Photo: Cristopher Wu/Daydream] To use Daydream, you take a short quiz to ensure that the agent tailors results to your taste and sizing. Then, you can engage with the AI agent like you might with a human stylist, asking questions and providing specifics about what youre looking for: “I need a new dress for a holiday in Barcelona,” or “Can you find me heels for a board meeting that are comfortable enough so I can walk to work? The platform will deliver results from an inventory of 2 million immediately available products from 8,000 brands, including Balenciaga, Nike, Khaite, Mytheresa, Uniqlo, and Dôen. These brands pay Daydream a commission when a customer buys a product, which allows the platform to remain free to users. Like all AI models, Daydream is designed to keep learning as more users engage with it, both by understanding broad trends across the population as well as how to tailor products to an individual’s shopping habits. In some ways, the most exciting possibilities are just around the corner. “We’re already thinking about what we can do with this technology,” says Bornstein. “Imagine an agent that already knows every single item in your closet and can suggest items that can pair with what you already own. [Image: Daydream] Taking the Pain Out of Online Shopping Bornstein has spent her career trying to perfect the art of e-commerce. In the early 2000s, she helped retailers like Nordstrom and Urban Outfitters build their nascent online websites. She led Sephora’s digital efforts before serving as COO of Stitch Fix, an online styling service that famously used a Netflix-like algorithm to identify the outfits its consumers might want. In 2018, she decided to strike out on her own. She launched an app called The Yes that was designed to foster inspiration and discoverysomething she felt was missing on most e-commerce sites that rely on consumers to search for and articulate what they want. The Yes created a social-media-like feed, where you could connect with friends and be served interesting products you might not have found on your own. Four years later, Pinterest acquired it for an undisclosed sum. Over the past few years, however, generative AI has loomed over the tech world. In 2023, Bornstein began working on Daydream, considering how AI could transform the shopping experience. “It was clear to me that when ChatGPT launched, it would open up a whole new set of possibilities,” she says. Current AI agents like ChatGPT aren’t tailored to shopping for clothing, though. If you ask the platform to help you look for a dress for a romantic dinner in Montreal in mid-July, it will scour the internet for options, but it has no way of identifying quality. Within a given price point, it will pull from no-name labels on Amazon and random brands known for making knockoffs. When it comes to taste and styling, ChatGPT has no sense of curation. It pulls from every blog, retail website, and influencer. [Image: Daydream] “ChatGPT is like a jack-of-all-trades, and it can respond to questions about clothing,” says Kirsten Green, founder of Forerunner Ventures, one of Daydreams investors. “But at some point, you need some expertise to ensure that an AI is giving you really helpful results, whether it relates to fashion or biotech.” Bornstein wanted to create an AI that had a more sophisticated sense of what consumers are looking for in terms of fashion and styling. For one thing, Daydream partners with 8,000 brands and has analyzedupwards of 2 million products. Further, Daydream’s developers have brought nuance to the search process, helping the AI distinguish between high-end brands like Balenciaga and Chloé, versus mass-market brands like Uniqlo. Also, with the help of developers, Daydream analyzes details like silhouette, fabric, and drape in a way that is more specific than general AI platforms. It incorporates information about sizing and fit based on reviews and data about the brand, so recommendations can be fully customized to the user. “We have been looking at images of clothing to identify both its objective and subjective attributes,” Bornstein says. “You need to be able to synthesize all of this information and make sure it is standardized.” [Image: Daydream] Green notes that none of this is easy. “This is the power of leveraging training models, understanding the details of product categories that have a lot of minute descriptors, understanding how to read images,” she says. The result is an AI agent that approximates a human stylist. Bornstein promises that Daydream will better understand the nuances of customers questions, offering more expertise around trends and personal taste. This means that two people might ask the same question and receive different results. It will pull from well-known brands, tailoring results to your budget. As you click on items you like, the AI will refine options. You can also pick one item, such as a blue dress, and say that you like the silhouette but would prefer it in red. Its also possible to upload an image of a dress you like and find similar options. Bornstein points out that some consumers like being able to have lots of choices, whereas others find that prospect overwhelming. Daydream’s AI can adapt to either approach. “Some people will just want the five best options for a particular dress or blazer,” she says. “Daydream can do this too.” [Image: Daydream] The Future of Fashion For Bornstein, launching Daydream is just the first step in her vision of transforming online clothes shopping. For one thing, AI will allow an unprecedented level of customization, tailoring results to each user’s individual tastes, budget, and body shape. In the near future, Bornstein imagines a technology that already knows everything thats in your closet. Imagine Cher’s closet from Clueless, which came with a computer that identified each piece of clothing and could coordinate looks. This isn’t so far away, Bornstein says. “We’re already thinking about how we could identify what is already in your closet, by looking at your credit card statements or your shopping history with a retailer,” she says. “Or you could imagine an AI tool that would quickly scan your closet with a camera and identify every item.” A technology like this could serve as a useful tool for helping people get dressed in the morning by suggesting what to wear given their plans for the day and the weather. It could also integrate into a broader shopping platform, like Daydream, allowing the AI to get a sense of a user’s aesthetic and size before recommending items that fit into their existing wardrobe. “Sometimes there’s a pair of shorts you might have that you would get so much more use out of if you just had the right top,” Bornstein notes as an example. “This would allow us to suggest items that someone really needs and doesn’t just double up on something else they already have.” It’s clear that a transformation is around the corner, as people increasingly incorporate AI into their lives. Green says she’s heard from many retailers whose search box is becoming useless because customers are treating it like an AI agent and asking it natural language questions, rather than typing in keywords. “Really great startups sometimes struggle because customers aren’t ready for the technology,” she says. “This isn’t the case here. I think we’re all ready for something better than a search bar.”
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E-Commerce
Sam Altman is extremely kid-pilled. The OpenAI CEO announced the birth of his son in February. Since then, Altman has employed his own product, ChatGPT, to answer parenting questions. Those first few weeks were every question, constantly. Now I ask it about developmental stages more, he said on OpenAI’s in-house podcast. Altman isnt alone on this front. In fact, his experience reflects a growing trend: New parents are increasingly turning to AI to help navigate childcare questions. According to a 2024 study, 52.7% of parents explicitly used ChatGPT for parenting strategies. Altman is among these parentsand he acknowledges a personal dependence. Clearly people have been able to take care of babies without ChatGPT for a long time, he said on the podcast. I dont know how I wouldve done that. But could there be such a thing as too much advice? AI for every stage of parenting For more targeted advice, some turn to specialized chatbots. Becky Kennedy, an influential clinical psychologist and parenting guru known as Dr. Becky, created the popular Good Inside app. There, parents can ask questions to a chatbot trained on Kennedys own writing and videos. Oath Care rode the initial AI boom by launching its specialized ParentGPT product, but the company shut down last year. AI-powered pregnancy apps are also popular. Soula is a 24/7 AI doula, which feeds on data to help advise users on pregnancy and postpartum concerns. The app has raised $750,000 and is backed by the former vice president of fertility and period tracker Flo Health. Glow, which runs a family of apps that includes a popular ovulation tracker, has introduced AI data processing to its prenatal and postpartum apps. There’s also a world of extensive and expensive childcare gadgets. Tech-forward parents can get their hands on a $400 Nanit baby monitor, which tracks, logs, and flags a babys movements using AI. For $1,500, new parents can purchase an AI-powered crib. There’s even a $2,500 self-driving and self-rocking stroller. How much parenting advice is too much? AI offers broad swaths of easily accessible information. But sending parents into information overload can be dangerous. While few studies exist on the new era of AI-powered parenting, researchers have consistently studied the effects of easy internet access on childcare. According to a 2023 study, parents who feel less confident and more overloaded tend to increase their online searching for parenting advice, which can further erode their sense of efficacy over time. The study also found that information overload is linked with greater queries, meaning that parents who surf the web will keep surfing. Robyn Koslowitz, a child psychologist and author of Post-Traumatic Parenting: Break the Cycle and Become the Parent You Always Wanted to Be, has noticed a technological shift. Patients used to visit her with self-diagnosed advice from “Dr. Google.” Now, she says, they reference “Dr. ChatGPT.” The data aligns with Koslowitz’s experience: A 2024 study from the Kansas Life Span Institute found that many parents trust ChatGPT more than their healthcare providers. “Parents have a tremendous amount of self-doubt nowadays,” Koslowitz tells Fast Company. “Sometimes ChatGPT, or any other chatbot, steps in to take away decision-making. But the only way we learn discernment, and we learn to figure it out, is if we rely on our own judgment.” New York Times journalist Amanda Hess has seen up close the dangers of over-technologizing childcare. Her new book, Second Life: Having a Child in the Digital Age, tracks her uses of pregnancy tech like fertility apps and online support groups. She worries about AI’s impact, too. “Theres something lost when we turn too quickly to technologies like chatbots to troubleshoot our kids,” Hess writes in an email to Fast Company. “There are bonds that can be built by asking friends and neighbors and relatives for help, human connections that will continue to support our kids as they make their way through life.” In other words, it takes a villagenot just a chatbot.
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E-Commerce
Most politicians do their best not to let their faces betray what they’re thinking. Bernie Sanders isn’t most politiciansand the most recent evidence of that was his reaction when hearing that the U.S. had bombed Irans nuclear facilities over the weekend. The famously straight-shooting senator from Vermont learned the U.S. had entered Israels war with Iran while onstage at a rally on June 21. Though the crowds lively reaction is what ended up going viral, its Sanderss wildly expressive visage that captures the complex emotions of the moment. Ever since Israel launched a preemptive missile strike against Irans nuclear facilities on June 12, pundits and politicians have breathlessly speculated about whether the U.S. would step in to provide diplomacy or military might. As tensions escalated, President Trump teased his next move with typical reality-show flair. (I may do it, I may not do it, he said on June 18 of the potential for a U.S. strike on Iran. I mean, nobody knows what Im going to do.) Three days later, much of the world found out in unison what Trump decided to do: launch a series of coordinated bombing attacks against Iran. Video clips from Sanderss Tulsa Fighting Oligarchy rally that night reflect the gravity of the Iran news as it reached the public, and underscores how members of Congresstechnically the body that should green-light a military action like the one launched Saturday, code-named Operation Midnight Hammerwere blindsided by the news. A TikTok showing the senator and his crowd absorbing the information together has already been viewed nearly 20 million timeswith further millions of views in a tweet shared on X. @victoriaaayy This feels so unreal. Immediate chills. #berniesanders #berniesanderstulsa original sound – Victoria The video, taken at a distance from Sanderss right-side profile, starts with an audience member shouting, We just bombed Iran! The senator then stops speaking briefly, until an aide brings him a printout of Trumps statement from Truth Social, which Sanders reads aloudWe have completed our very successful attack on the three nuclear sites in Iran, ending with etcetera. From here, the crowd breaks out into a series of boos that give way to a spontaneous, deafening chant of No more war! Other videos taken at the event have emerged, including some from Sanderss own social team, showing what happened next. The Senator agrees with the thrust of the chant, and describes the bombing as so grossly unconstitutional. He neednt have said anything at all to get the same message across, though, since the footage of Sanderss face during the moment between hearing the shout from the crowd and reading the Truth Social post says it all. Sen. Bernie Sanders held a "Fighting Oligarchy" rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma, when he received news of President Donald Trump's strikes on Iran.— CNN (@cnn.com) 2025-06-22T21:08:17.318Z First, there is half a snort as it seems to dawn on Sanders that the crowd may have more information than he does. When the news appears to sink in, his mouth hangs open in slack-jawed surprise, and he turns to get confirmation from his aides. After one of them presumably confirms the news off-screen with a nod, the corners of Sanderss mouth tighten into a sort of discombobulated grimace. Fury flashes across his whole face, leading to some wily eyebrow gymnastics. As he pauses, signaling the need for more info, an aide rushes over with a printout of Trumps Truth Social post. Upon laying eyes on it, Sanders shakes his head in the disgusted manner of someone disappointed despite already dismal expectations. He seems to simultaneously not believe what hes reading and understand that it makes perfect, horrible sense. (The look on Bernies face is all of us, reads a typical reaction to the video on Bluesky.) Part of the reason Sanders had the highest approval rating in the Senate as of January 16, according to Morning Consult, is because he is widely perceived as authentic. One of the many memes hes inspired, after all, was based on his refusal to pretend the weather at Joe Bidens inauguration in 2021 was anything less than soul-piercingly cold. This authenticity oozes out of the longtime anti-war politician in the rally clip, suggesting much of Congress was not informed in advance, let alone consulted, before the U.S. struck Iran. While the folks who might be inclined to attend a Saturday night Bernie Sanders rally are not exactly a representative sample of all Americans political leanings, early evidence suggests the broader public mirrors their instant reaction to he bombing news. A YouGov survey of 2,824 U.S. adults on June 22 found 85% of respondents answering no to the question, Do you want the U.S. to be at war with Iran? Only 5% answered affirmatively. Meanwhile, The New York Times checked back in with an ongoing panel of six 2024 Trump voters and found that two fully supported the Iran strike, two conditionally supported it, and two were against it. (One of the big reasons I voted for him was him keeping us out of stuff in the Middle East, said one in the latter category.) Many other politicians on both sides of the aisle also came out against the strike. While no record exists of what their faces looked like when they heard the news, thanks to Sanders, its easier to imagine.
Category:
E-Commerce
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