AI can create immersive, human-centric experiences that not only drive sales but also foster enduring brand relationships in a rapidly evolving market.
This episode was recorded live at eTail Boston, and today we’re going to talk about how AI-driven personalization allows retailers to move beyond generic experiences, crafting unique interactions that resonate with individual preferences and behaviors, thereby enhancing customer satisfaction and loyalty.
I’m thrilled to be joined by Noah Zamansky, Vice President of Product, Tech and Design, Client Experience at Stitch Fix here at eTail Boston.
About Noah Zamansky
Noah Zamansky is VP of Product, Client Experience at Stitch Fix He was previously with eBay where he was the Senior Director of Product Management for Fashion & Vertical Experiences. Noah is a seasoned leader who has shaped product vision, strategy and experience as well as helped launch new lines of business. He is a strong collaborator with an ability to bring stakeholders and perspectives together to create the best result.
Noah Zamansky on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nzamansky/
Resources
Stitch Fix: https://www.stitchfix.com
eTail Boston: https://etaileast.wbresearch.com
The Agile Brand podcast is brought to you by TEKsystems. Learn more here: https://www.teksystems.com/versionnextnow
Don’t Miss MAICON 2025, October 14-16 in Cleveland – the event bringing together the brights minds and leading voices in AI. Use Code AGILE150 for $150 off registration. Go here to register: https://bit.ly/agile150
Connect with Greg on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gregkihlstrom
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Transcript
Greg Kihlstrom (00:00)
AI can create immersive human-centric experiences that not only drive sales, but also foster enduring brand relationships in a rapidly evolving market. Today we’re going to talk about how AI-driven personalization allows retailers to move beyond generic experiences, crafting unique interactions that resonate with individual preferences and behaviors, enhancing customer satisfaction and loyalty. I’m thrilled to be joined by Noah Zamansky.
Vice President of Product, Tech, and Design, Client Experience at StitchFix here at eTail Boston. Noah, welcome to eTail Boston. Welcome back to the show.
Noah Zamansky (00:33)
Greg, thanks for having me back. It’s great to be here in Boston. And yeah, it’s been a great detail so far.
Greg Kihlstrom (00:40)
Yeah,
absolutely. I know we did the fireside chat this morning. Doing a follow up here. For those that didn’t catch either your previous appearance here on the show or at Etel Boston, why don’t you give a little background on yourself and your role at StitchFix. And maybe for those a little less familiar with StitchFix, tell a little bit about what the company’s about.
Noah Zamansky (01:00)
Absolutely. ⁓ So I’m Noah Zmanski. I’m a VP of Client and Styling Experience at StitchFix. And I lead the product and technology teams that are really driving transformation of how our clients and stylists interact with our service. And for those who are unfamiliar with StitchFix, we are the leading online personalized styling service that helps clients discover the styles that they love, that fit perfectly, and evolve over time, and so that they can look and feel their best.
And know, style is deeply personal and that’s why from the very start when we started nearly 15 years ago, it’s been about combining the human empathy of stylists with the leading and best in class data science to really provide our clients with the most personalized experience. And that’s the same approach that we’re taking today and really backed by our high quality assortment to help clients save time, look great, and really evolve their style over time.
Greg Kihlstrom (01:58)
Yeah, yeah, I love it. So yeah, we’re going to talk about some of the latest developments of some exciting announcements today, this week from StitchFix. But before we do, I want to go back and touch a little bit on what you touched on there and some of the interesting applications of both AI as well as that human touch. And so like many companies, your StitchFix is using customer data to personalize, to tailor things.
I guess no pun intended to tailor things to the customer. But there’s also a very unique part of this, which is those human stylists that you mentioned. So can you talk first about how do you find the right balance? And you want to use AI, you want to personalize, you want to have that immediacy, and yet you also want to balance that with the human component.
Noah Zamansky (02:52)
Yeah, absolutely, Greg. mean, for us, you know, it is about that combination. But one of my favorite parts of this business and about the service as a client is the huge network of stylists that we have across the country. These are seasoned experts, they’re fashion enthusiasts and they’re trendsetters, and they’re all deeply motivated to really understand your style so they can send you the ⁓ perfect pieces each and every time.
You know, we realized about a year, year and a half ago that we weren’t really shining enough of a spotlight and giving our stylists enough credit. And this is really, you know, this is really a key component that really sets us apart is that, you know, is our stylist. And so we launched Stylist Profiles and Photos and really was the idea was like, hey, let’s shine a spotlight on the stylist and let’s showcase like their personality, their expertise and their interests.
And what we saw was that clients, a dramatic increase in clients requesting the same stylist, and that’s one of the ⁓ strongest leading indicators of engagement that we have. And so we discovered that this is so important to our clients, and it is something that we really wanted to invest in. And so the way we think about it is that that’s really a core part of the experience that sets us apart. But that personal connection with the stylist is amplified by all the technology.
from the tools that we provide the stylist that make it super easy for them to provide you with a really great outfit selection to the recommendations that we show you on the site. It’s all part of that combination. so with AI moving as quickly as it is, we’re moving both forward, the human element and the AI component forward, because for us, that’s really kind of our differentiating factor. And that’s why our clients love us and kind of come back again and again.
Greg Kihlstrom (04:45)
Yeah, yeah. And I mean, I can attest I’m wearing a few things from StitchFix right now, even ⁓ happy customer there. And I do think that that balance is important because you know, do, you know, the human stylist, and again, I’ve requested the same person a couple of times in a row as well. And so, you you give the opportunity to build a relationship of sorts, but also
there’s that the data component is so important to get things right initially. Because I would imagine, you know, the first step, the first interaction or the first purchase that a customer makes, the better information, the more the, you know, just deeper information that you can have, the better selections you’re going to make for them. All of that takes a certain amount of, you know, not only building trust, but also demonstrating that, you know, if they give you a little more information, you’re going to be able to give results, so there’s a value exchange there. How do you approach demonstrating that value exchange with even early customers?
Noah Zamansky (05:50)
Yeah, and that’s the critical thing is that we need to demonstrate that value early on. And it’s really about showing our clients early on that we’re listening to them, that we heard them, that we understand them. We feel like this is the foundation of trust. And that’s really the most important part of that value exchange equation that we see. And so last year, we launched our style file, which we talked about on the last podcast, which
You know, is our AI powered ⁓ style profile that we provide for our clients. And that was really a breakthrough for us because early on in that journey where we’re asking the client a lot of questions, it actually showed that we understood exactly what their style was and gave them a way to articulate it in words, right? And so that was a really big ⁓ step and was a very impactful change for us. But we’ve continued that approach across the experience.
And that’s where our clients really understand is like the more they interact with us, actually the better the service really does become from the ratings that they provide with, we call this style shuffle, thumbs up when they’re looking at different outfits, thumbs down if they don’t like it, or thumbs up if they like it. And to all the interactions that they have from like the items that they keep or that they send back.
That’s all part of the algos and our system really understanding them at a deeper and deeper level. And so that’s how we think about that value exchange that grows with time. But it’s really about doing more to communicate that, that we’ve heard them. And another way that we’ve done this is through our contextual nudges that we’ve rolled out over the last year, which are just little snippets of text that give you clues around why we’re recommending a certain item.
And that’s been super impactful on our engagement scores and for our clients, because we’re sharing information like, this item matches your style file or is complimentary to an item that you just purchased. And that really helps contextualize ⁓ what’s happening behind the scenes with recommendations.
Greg Kihlstrom (07:53)
So as I mentioned, at the top of the show, you’re making several announcements this week. So I wanted to get to those. so let’s talk about a few of them. So Gen.ai has a lot of creative applications. Certainly, we’ve seen some really interesting stuff here at eTail even. Let’s talk about a couple of those applications from StitchFix. How are you approaching the use of AI assistance in the shopping process?
How does this reinforce the human stylus that come a little later in the process?
Noah Zamansky (08:24)
Yeah, it’s so great to be here and AI is definitely the topic of the hour here at eTail. so we’ve been at the AI game since we were founded nearly 15 years ago. And we had talked about node assist and the way we embed natural language using large language models in the last podcast.
And so that’s really given us a head start around really ⁓ in-depth experience and momentum around application of large language models and generative AI. But the AI assistant, we’re really excited. We’re announcing this week, and this is the first time where we’re really putting ⁓ the tools directly into the hands of our clients to help them try to articulate what they’re looking for and share that with their stylists. So it’s really another angle that we’re applying the technology.
to help build that connection with the stylus. the way, you know, what we hear our clients say is that they really kind of struggle to kind of explain what they’re looking for sometimes when they’re starting, you know, writing their request note to the stylus. Sometimes, you know, they don’t know exactly how to express that. And so this is really like a perfect use case to introduce like natural language, you know, in a conversational way and generate the images and provide a visual.
And so that’s exactly what we’re doing, starting the conversation with conversational prompts, getting a feel for what they’re looking for in a conversational, natural way. And then in real time, showing them personalized images in real time of looks and vibes that they can give us feedback on. And at the end of that very quick and seamless process, we’re packaging it together in a request note that they can send to their stylist, which has really expressive request note and visuals as well really something really tangible for both the client and the stylist to work with.
Greg Kihlstrom (10:20)
Nice, nice. Yeah, and that visualization component, I mean, it’s so important when you’re talking about something like clothing or other products like that. It’s so important to have that context. Are you doing other things with Gen.ai to help that process of like, you know, let me see it before I get it kind of thing.
Noah Zamansky (10:39)
Yeah, that’s the next stage. We’re not stopping at the AI assistant. And ⁓ our clients have said that through our research that the most inspired that they feel is when they can actually visualize themselves with outfit recommendations and emerging trends. And so that’s the next step. Over the next couple of weeks, we are going to be enabling just that for our clients. And it’s a really personalized application.
of the latest visualization techniques using generative AI to help. You can see yourself ⁓ in the actual setting and in the actual clothing. I think ⁓ our clients’ early days and early reaction is really super positive. It’s a very aspirational yet tangible way to approach visualization.
Greg Kihlstrom (11:25)
Nice, nice. Yeah, we’ll have to stay tuned for some things there though. ⁓ So, know, last thing here as far as announcements go, you you’re going to be using technology more to more directly connect stylists with customers. Can you talk about how you’re going to be using, you know, AI and other technology to do this while still harnessing customer data and other technologies to enhance it?
Noah Zamansky (11:29)
That’s great. More to come there.
Yeah, absolutely. We are excited to start ramping what we’re calling Stylus Connect, which allows our clients to connect directly with our stylists. And in near real time, to share questions about style, about fit, about emerging trends, and do so in a way with technology that allows stylists to share looks, to share items, and to really talk about the outfits that the client is looking for.
And so for me, it’s really about hyper-personalization. I was really excited to use this to plan my outfit for my niece’s graduation. that interaction with the stylist, the conversation was really so natural. And she was able to share lots of looks in near real time. And we were able to really see and co-create that fix and see it come together. And when I received the fix, everything was great. I put on the jacket and the shirt and I snapped a.
picture and I sent it to her and it was just this magical moment where you know realized that this is actually like a deeper connection than you know I’ve ever had with any other like similar service and you know she was able to provide additional styling advice as well. So far the know the results and the feedback from our clients is super positive and they love this this kind of you know modality and way of you know communicating directly with our our stylists and so
This is available on iOS and is going to be ramping over the next few weeks. So very exciting.
Greg Kihlstrom (13:24)
Yeah, yeah. And I I love that there’s lots of different ways to interact as well. So you can work directly with a stylist. You can use the AI assistant. So using AI balancing with the human stylist, but also giving customers what they want. And generally, what they want is flexibility. Yeah.
Noah Zamansky (13:46)
Yeah, I mean, that’s exactly right. It’s about giving our clients the agency. And you mentioned about how do we strike that balance? And we really want them to be able to engage with us in their way. And if they want to chat with us directly with a stylist, they can. If they want to jump in and really help visualize their style with an AI assistant, they can. And so that’s the exciting thing about how this is going to evolve and how we can actually really try to blend the AI and the client connection seamlessly moving forward.
Greg Kihlstrom (14:22)
I love it. Well, before we wrap up here, I know we covered a lot here in a short amount of time, ⁓ how do you look at, moving forward, how do you look at continuously improving things, improving the customer experience, always keeping that balance or even the optionality in mind, what kind of guides you in the way your team approaches new ideas?
Noah Zamansky (14:46)
Yeah, definitely. I think we talked about two of the key guiding principles that AI is definitely moving very quickly and we’re committed to investing and staying ahead of that curve. And I think the announcements that we made today have demonstrated how committed we are and we’re going to continue to drive innovation in that space. At the same time, we see a future of AI.
and humans, not AI or humans. And so that’s the second guiding principle for us is like always striving to strike that right balance. And we believe that’s a real differentiator for us. And using those two key guiding principles, it really is just about listening to our clients and stylists, working with them to constantly improve and experiment. And we’re trying to just move as quickly as we can.
The space is moving quickly and our client expectations are evolving all the time. that velocity is really ⁓ the key in the name of the game.
Greg Kihlstrom (15:46)
Yeah, no, love the AI and humans. I love that. And also, you’re using AI to improve the customer experience, but also the stylistic experience. So you’re using it to improve everybody’s experience in other words. And I assume the business as well. So yeah.
Noah Zamansky (16:02)
Absolutely, yeah. ⁓ the tools that we provide them are so critical for everything that we do. And so that’s really a huge part of the equation.
Greg Kihlstrom (16:13)
love it. Well Noah, thanks for coming back on the show here. Always great to talk with you. One last question. I might have asked this to you already, but I’ll ask it again. What do do to stay agile in your role and how do you find a way to do it consistently?
Noah Zamansky (16:26)
Yeah, I think it’s changed a little bit and evolved since even the last time. But for us, think, especially with the AI innovation space, one of the things that we’ve had to do is really take a modular approach as the models evolve, are evolving quickly, so quickly that we need to be able to experiment and almost like plug and unplug different approaches. And we need a solid kind of data platform to be able to do that. And so that’s number one is very like take a modular approach and be ready to adapt the latest when the latest is ready. So that just takes a kind of like different architectural approach and mindset for innovation. then, secondly, I think for us, it’s about ⁓ collaboration. And that’s been consistent. We’ve been working with a lot of ⁓ external partners. But the theme here today has been about hackathons and internal partners. We don’t have like a generative AI team off to the side, ⁓ working on gen AI, it’s our entire team. And it’s technology and it’s marketing. so that is, we’re doing a lot of evolution of our tools and ⁓ staying up to date with the latest and greatest. So that’s really kind how we’re thinking about staying agile.
