How mature do you think online clothes shopping is right now? You’d think it’s pretty advanced, until you run into the problem of getting your size right. That’s right! A lot of online shoppers struggle with finding the right clothes for their body measurements, and fashion companies having 10 different ideas of small, medium and large doesn’t help, either. This is what Parallel tries to solve. It uses AI to help shoppers get access to the clothes they want by showing them what someone with their body size can wear. It’s as close as you can get to in-person shopping without lifting your butt from your couch. Chris Schmidt joins us in this episode of Edge of AI to tell us more of their groundbreaking work. He also shares some stuff about people management that he believes is the key to Parallel’s success. Tune in for more!

Key Takeaways:

• Online shopping returns due to incorrect fit are a significant problem, accounting for 40% of eCommerce returns.
• Parallel, a user-generated content platform, aims to solve this issue by allowing users to upload their measurements and photos, facilitating better size choices. The platform's rapid growth is driven by TikTok and has a global reach. Brands are showing increasing interest in leveraging the data Parallel gathers.
• Parallel employs AI for precise clothing size recommendations based on user-uploaded measurements. The platform utilizes AI across content curation, fraud detection, moderation, and recommendations. It also enables users to monetize their content through brand affiliate partnerships.
• The founder's commitment to focusing exclusively on developing Parallel and resisting the temptation to diversify into other AI domains or industries, highlighting the importance of staying focused in the early stages of a startup.
• The discussion of AI's role in analyzing user-generated content, such as images, to improve product recommendations and understand user emotions and preferences. This underscores the evolving complexity of search queries and the need for AI to fill data gaps to provide more accurate results.

Quotes: 

• "40% of online purchases are returned, with 60% of those returns attributed to incorrect fit."
• "Parallel's user-generated content showcases customers' outfits, resembling professional modeling shots and driving engagement on the platform."
• "The accuracy of the system is incredibly high. It’s 98% accurate compared with a 3D body scanner."
• "The fascinating component about Parallel is we’ve essentially lowered the bar for anyone that wants to be a creator. Anyone who has a photo of themselves can become a creator on Parallel. You can be an entrepreneur."