An AI overhaul at Macy’s is fueling the 168-year-old retailer’s turnaround

After Macy’s launched its AI-powered “Ask Macy’s” shopping assistant in March, executives quickly noticed that one feature was a particularly big hit with customers. The chatbot’s “Complete the Look” virtual try-on feature invites users to upload a photo of themselves and then suggests different looks—either complete ensembles, or items to compliment what they’re wearing. Its popularity is paying off: Shoppers who use the feature spend almost five times more per session on Macy’s web site than those who don’t. Like many retailers, Macy’s spent a good chunk of the 2010s throwing spaghetti at the wall to see what stuck when it came to tech innovation. But now executives hold up “Ask Macy’s” as a model of the kind of innovation they are pursuing. “Innovation needs to either solve a customer issue or unlock a customer opportunity or unlock better effectiveness,” says Max Magni, Macy’s chief customer and digital officer. Innovation for the sake of innovation just doesn’t cut it anymore, no matter how dazzling, he adds. Magni’s boss, Tony Spring, on whose watch Macy’s has staged an accelerating turnaround, hired him away from McKinsey in 2023 and made clear he wanted more focus and discipline in any innovation the venerable company pursues. “We are not buying shiny objects,” Spring told investors recently. Magni says that soon after he arrived, he jettisoned some 50 smaller innovation projects, finding them distracting, not relevant to shoppers, and not worth the time and money. One such project was live commerce à la QVC via streaming, which no customers were asking Macy’s for. Indeed, much of Macy’s innovation lately has been focused on the nerdy things that make it a better retailer. Last year, it opened a state-of-the-art and highly automated distribution center in China Grove, N.C., that has allowed faster deliveries of e-commerce orders and better store inventory control; it’s also scalable to accommodate future growth. The company is also a leader in using AI