Byte-Sized AI is a bi-weekly column that covers all things artificial intelligence—from startup funding, to newly inked partnerships, to just-launched, AI-powered capabilities from major retailers, software providers and supply chain players.
LVMH extends its Alibaba Cloud partnership for Chinese market
Luxury giant LVMH announced late last month it would extend its partnership with e-commerce juggernaut Alibaba to leverage its AI and cloud-based technologies. For LVMH, which has already used Alibaba‘s Tmall platform to engage some Chinese consumers, the end goal is to further upgrade its presence in the country, particularly where data and omnichannel experiences are concerned.
Already, the two have started integrating some of Alibaba’s generative AI functions into LVMH’s infrastructure. Those systems include Qwen, the technology provider’s ChatGPT-style LLM, and Bailian, the company’s AI model matrix. LVMH expects the technologies to have a solid impact on the way consumers interact with its brands and to improve business operations, it said.
The Louis Vuitton owner said the renewed partnership, which is slated to last five years, will give it access to supply chain management technology, tools to better understand its customers and more.
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Eddie Wu, Alibaba Group’s CEO said the company works to facilitate worthwhile consumer experiences, so the extension of the LVMH partnership was a natural fit.
“Alibaba is pleased to enable a transformation of the high-end consumption experience with retail leaders like LVMH through our world-class technologies in cloud computing and AI,” Wu said in a statement. “This comprehensive partnership has elevated the retail experience for LVMH’s customers worldwide, including China-based consumers on Tmall. We look forward to continuing to build on the strong partnership and innovation journey with LVMH.”
Google launches another set of tools for advertising and search
Google announced at its Google Marketing Live event last month that it has expanded the generative AI tools it will make available to brands and retailers.
The company launched its Product Studio system last year, which in its initial iteration allowed users to add a background into an image using a prompt, remove the background from an image and increase resolution of product images.
Now, it has taken Product Studio’s capabilities one step further. According to the company, brands and retailers are now able to more easily match their existing brand style with the tool by uploading a reference image for the type of background they’ve prompted the generative AI system to create. Product Studio can also now animate a still image, with an AI-generated background, so brands and retailers can create videos and gifs for social media campaigns.
In addition to Product Studio, which seems to be geared toward brands and retailers focused on making their own content, Google said it has plans to use AI to up the ante for advertising. Once a brand has short-form video content, it can connect those assets to its Google advertisements.
Matt Madrigal, Google’s vice president of merchant shopping, said in a blog post that the capability will benefit brands by “showing how your clothes look on others” and allowing customers to “view helpful styling suggestions and easily explore related or complementary products from your brand.”
Google will also show AI-generated summaries below the videos, which will allow consumers to “see key details about a product before they make a decision to buy,” Madrigal said. Neither the video and ad integration nor the AI-generated summary tool have launched publicly, and according to the blog post, those features will only become available in a closed beta later this year.
AI-powered climate technology startup joins Carbon13’s accelerator program
Eslando, a London-based startup using AI to create digital product passports (DPP), has been named to Carbon13’s accelerator, Venture Launchpad, which it runs with Barclays Eagle Labs. Six startups were selected, and each of them have a unique focus on sustainability in their respective industries.
Eslando will receive an initial investment of £120,000 (over $153,000) as part of the program.
The company leverages AI to integrate information about the recyclability of textile products into the labels affixed to the goods. With a simple scan of the DPP, a recycler—or the company that originally produced the product—can understand the type of recycling a product requires, whether it needs to be disassembled for recycling and how to sort it for subsequent recycling processes.
Karishma Gupta and Andrew Ho, co-founders of Eslando, said the venture building company’s faith in their project will help the startup enter new territory.
“Carbon13’s investment is a game-changer for Eslando. We’re empowering brands to embrace circularity, recyclers to access high-quality feedstock and unlock the true potential of sustainable fashion,” they said in a statement.
ShopSense AI links with Magnite, furthering Paramount Global partnership
ShopSense AI announced earlier this year that it had partnered with Paramount to make certain advertisements shoppable with a smartphone. The company launched its initial experiment for the technology partnership during the Country Music Television Awards, enabling shoppers to buy looks they saw on celebrities on the red carpet, and has since broadened its reach into other shows and categories.
But to date, not all advertisers may have been included in the buying process, as many purchase ads through programmatic. With that in mind, ShopSense announced last month it had partnered with Magnite, which connects ad buyers—in this scenario, retailers and brands—with ad sellers, like Paramount. Linking with Magnite means that brands will have greater visibility into available slots for ShopSense-enabled ads, particularly among brands who may not frequently advertise on Paramount.
Leo O’Connor, senior vice president of advertising at Paramount Global, said the connection ShopSense has made with Magnite could make it easier for advertisers to run AI-enabled spots on Paramount.
“We’ve known that our content inspires the shopping journey for our viewers, and it was important to us to simplify the path to purchase by building content-curated storefronts. Making our stores accessible programmatically is essential because we always look for ways to simplify buying with us.”