New conversational discovery and personalized styling experiences across Old Navy, Gap and Banana Republic signal the next evolution of digital commerce
Thirty years ago, Gap was among a pioneering generation of American fashion retailers venturing onto the World Wide Web, beginning a new chapter in how customers could discover and engage with the brand. Today, during Gap Inc.’s SF Tech Week Kickoff, Gap Inc. CTO Sven Gerjets unveiled new AI-powered shopping experiences designed to make discovering and shopping for fashion more intuitive, personalized and conversational across the company’s portfolio of brands, augmenting more traditional e-commerce tools like search boxes, filters and product grids.
The milestone reflects a much bigger evolution. Over three decades, Gap Inc. has moved from e-commerce to mobile, social and omnichannel retail, continually adapting as technology, culture and customer expectations have changed. Today, AI represents another opportunity to rethink the customer journey. “Thirty years ago, we launched gap.com, revolutionizing the way customers interacted with our brands, and today AI is creating a new opportunity to rethink how people shop for fashion,” Gerjets said. “We’re moving toward experiences that better understand the customer and can help connect discovery, inspiration and ultimately action in a more frictionless, intuitive way.”
From Search to Conversation
At Old Navy and Banana Republic, new conversational, AI-powered discovery tools allow customers to describe what they are looking for in natural language and receive relevant product ideas and recommendations. Rather than requiring customers to translate what they want into keywords, categories and filters, the experiences are designed to better understand customer intent and help people move more naturally from an idea to products that fit what they had in mind.
New ways to Discover Gap
Gap brand is launching a new experience with Alta Daily that brings AI-powered styling and discovery into a more visual and personalized environment. The app helps customers turn their personal style and inspiration into curated looks featuring Gap products they can try on their Alta avatar. Gap Inc. products can also be discovered through Daydream, the AI-powered fashion discovery platform where shoppers describe what they are looking for in everyday language to discover relevant products.
To celebrate three decades of reinvention, Gap Inc. and Silicon Foundry are co-hosting Never Finished: The Next Chapter as part of San Francisco Tech Week. The speaker line up will include Alta Founder & CEO, Jenny Wang, Daydream Co-Founder & CEO, Julie Bornstein, and SVP of E-Commerce at Gap, Megan Zapala, in conversation with Editor-in-chief of The San Francisco Standard, Kevin Delaney. The morning will also include keynote sessions with Arem Duplessis, Global Creative Director, Marcom / Apple, and Jonathan Mildenhall, Chief Marketing Officer at Rocket Companies, exploring the idea of reinvention across technology, creativity, culture, and leadership.
A lobby installation at Gap Inc.’s San Francisco headquarters will bring 30 Years of Reinvention to life, contrasting the dial-up, desktop experience of early e-commerce with today’s fast, connected and increasingly conversational customer journey.
The installation also highlights an enduring idea behind the company’s technology strategy - to reimagine retail through a human-centered, digitally enabled approach to AI. “Over time, we expect AI to move commerce beyond recommendation toward experiences that can better understand customer needs and help act on their behalf. Gap Inc. is building the data, technology and partnerships needed to participate in that emerging ecosystem responsibly and at scale, while keeping customer choice, human creativity, and brand relationships at the center. The interface will continue to evolve, but our principle stays the same: start with the customer and use technology to create a better experience,” Gerjets added.
Gap Inc.’s latest launches at SF Tech Week come 30 years after the introduction of Gap Online in 1996. Since then, the company has evolved through e-commerce, mobile, social, and omnichannel retail. The next chapter is focused on using AI to create shopping experiences that are more personalized, connected, and convenient while continuing to put the customer at the center.
What began with a dial-up connection and a new digital storefront is now evolving toward shopping experiences that can increasingly understand intent, context and individual preferences – as Gap Inc. continues to explore agentic commerce and new ways to meet customers wherever they choose to shop.
About Gap Inc.
Gap Inc., a purpose-driven house of iconic brands, is the largest specialty apparel company in America. Its Old Navy, Gap, Banana Republic, and Athleta brands offer clothing, accessories, and lifestyle products for men, women, and children worldwide through Company-operated and franchise stores and e-commerce sites. Through Encore, its cross-brand membership program, Gap Inc. connects members across its portfolio to rewards, benefits, and exclusive experiences. Since 1969, Gap Inc. has created products and experiences that shape culture, while doing right by employees, communities, and the planet through its commitment to bridge gaps to create a better world. For more information, please visit www.gapinc.com.
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