The menu filter for “formal dresses” prompted her to choose from 15 criteria like dress length, color, neckline, sleeve length and embellishments. Months later, Ms. Schmelkin — in her role as the chief information officer at J. Crew Group — was introduced to Lily AI, an artificial intelligence-powered platform that began working with fashion retailers in 2019. Intrigued, Ms. Schmelkin did a test run on its product catalog from the company’s Madewell brand. By the time Madewell tried it out, Lily AI had run more than one billion searches, each helping the algorithm become more sophisticated.

---

Persons: Danielle Schmelkin, ”, Bloomingdales.com, “, Schmelkin —, —, Lily AI, Schmelkin, Lily