ChatGPT can now virtually try on clothes for you

OpenAI has recently unveiled two new shopping features for its conversational AI assistant, ChatGPT, allowing users to virtually try on clothes and save favorite products. These updates mark a shift as AI assistants venture into the realm of consumer shopping experiences. Earlier, OpenAI had to abandon an instant checkout feature that underperformed. Another attempt at product recommendations by agentic AI startup Instinct sparked controversy, with some perceiving it as overly promotional rather than helpful.

The company's new shopping features utilize the ChatGPT Images 2.5 model, touted for its ability to generate images with more natural lighting and textures, follow editing instructions more reliably, and decrease image generation latency. The first feature, virtual try-on, enables users to upload a selfie or full-body photo to visualize how clothing or accessories might look on them.

This option will be accessible as a "try on" button in ChatGPT's shopping results. Alternatively, users can upload an image of an item and ask ChatGPT to virtually try it on for them.

The second feature, Favorites, allows users to save discovered products to a Library within the app, enabling them to revisit these items later. The saved items will also include any virtual try-on images generated. ChatGPT can assist users in other shopping tasks, such as advising on outfit creation based on a described style or identifying the actual products featured in celebrity outfits for potential purchase.

These capabilities hint at ChatGPT's potential to compete with established players like Pinterest and Google, which have long been leaders in fashion inspiration and discovery tools that can lead to sales for online retailers. However, it is unclear whether ChatGPT will become the go-to platform for such activities, particularly considering Google's virtual try-on feature launched earlier this year.