How AI can solve the discoverability problem for retailers

In today’s retail landscape, consumer brands face a growing challenge: standing out in the crowded online space. Even with a great product, website and socials, the journey from initial search to discovering the product a consumer actually wants can be difficult — especially with existing search mechanisms.

This is where AI can step in to change the game. By leveraging advanced algorithms and machine learning, brands can connect with the right audiences more effectively, ensuring their search mechanisms are not just another needle in the internet haystack.

Artificial intelligence is revolutionizing website discoverability, helping consumer brands break through the noise and match their customers with the right products faster than ever. You’ll be able to see the best of these technologies in action at this year’s NRF Innovators Showcase at NRF 2025: Retail’s Big Show, Jan. 12-14, in New York City.

To dig into this ongoing issue for retailers, here’s a closer look into a company, Lily AI, that is paving the way for helping shoppers find what they are looking for.

Lily AI was born from a simple frustration: Founder Purva Gupta couldn’t find a dress that matched her style when shopping online. Realizing the disconnect between how consumers search and how retailers describe products, she teamed up with software engineer Sowmiya Chocka Narayanan to create a solution. Their AI platform enhances product descriptions with customer-friendly language, making items easier to find.

How it works

Lily AI combines machine learning, natural language processing and human expertise to enrich product descriptions with customer-centric language, making it easier for shoppers to find exactly what they want. This technology identifies thousands of product attributes with unmatched precision, ensuring retailers receive detailed, relevant descriptions.

As an enterprise-grade AI solution, Lily AI uniquely bridges the gap between consumer searches and product listings, driving stronger performance across retail-specific use cases and integrations.

Partners and impact

Lily AI’s approach has attracted major retail clients, including Macy’s, Bloomingdale’s and J.Crew Group, and has led to significant improvements in online search and sales performance. Lily AI generally sees a lift of 5% to 25% in clicks, impressions and conversions on partners’ products.

Multinational fashion holding company Tapestry, parent company of Coach, Kate Spade and Stuart Weitzman, recently used Lily AI’s advanced technologies — like generative AI, machine learning and natural language processing — to optimize product discovery.

For instance, Lily AI was able to enhance the attributes of Coach’s Tabby Shoulder Bag. The AI-driven process added dozens of new product descriptors, aligning with consumer search behaviors, which significantly improved Google Search and site search discoverability.

The partnership between Lily AI and Tapestry delivered impressive results. Key performance indicators such as conversions, average sales per view and search engine optimization metrics saw double-digit improvements. Tapestry experienced higher average sales per SKU, a significant increase in product page views and overall better performance in both paid and organic search efforts.

“We are listening to trends all over and then we are sending those to our brands and retailers,” Gupta says. “They can just enable whatever they would like on their sites.”

Innovation on display

The NRF Innovators Showcase at NRF 2025: Retail’s Big Show will feature the most advanced AI personalization technologies in the industry. Check out Particular Audience, offering AI-driven solutions for retail media, search, and personalization to boost revenue, and Curated For You, which uses AI to decode purchase intent, delivering tailored recommendations that drive sales and customer loyalty.

Don’t miss the chance to see these cutting-edge technologies in action — register for NRF 2025: Retail’s Big Show here!