Gap expands AI shopping with Alta Daily and new discovery tools
Gap Inc. launched AI-powered natural-language product discovery for Old Navy and Banana Republic, plus an integration with Alta Daily's AI styling app for Gap-branded merchandise. This signals major apparel brands are moving to conversational and agentic commerce to replace traditional search and filter navigation.
This accelerates AI disruption of traditional search-based discovery, compressing the window for marketplace sellers who rely solely on keyword optimization — brands that don't diversify into AI-native channels face structural traffic decline.
As AI styling apps like Alta Daily and Daydream become discovery channels, apparel brands not feeding product data into these platforms risk losing top-of-funnel traffic — this is a new SEO battleground outside Amazon and Google. Marketplace brand operators should audit whether their product catalog data (attributes, use-case descriptions, lifestyle context) is structured to feed AI recommendation engines, not just keyword search.
Operational Impact
This story may require teams to revisit workflows, monitoring, or platform assumptions.
Bottom Line
AI styling apps are becoming product discovery channels that bypass Amazon and Google search.
Source Lens
Analyst Intelligence
Research or editorial analysis that adds market context beyond the official announcement.
Impact Level
low
AI styling apps are becoming product discovery channels that bypass Amazon and Google search.
Key Stat / Trigger
Gap's 30th anniversary of launching gap.com in 1996, now framing AI as the next commerce evolution.
Focus on the operational implication, not just the headline.
Full Coverage
Gap Inc. is pushing artificial intelligence (AI) deeper into how its shoppers discover and style its products. The retailer on Monday unveiled new natural-language product discovery features for its Old Navy and Banana Republic brands. Separately, Gap said it’s launching an online styling experience with Alta Daily.
The feature brings Gap’s namesake-brand merchandise into AI-generated outfit recommendations on the third-party styling app. The announcements coincide with the retailer’s 30th anniversary of launching Gap Online in 1996.
The company has been highlighting that milestone during this week’s SF Tech Week in San Francisco, framing AI as the next evolution in how customers shop its brands. Gap said it is also exploring emerging agentic commerce, in which AI can take actions on a shopper’s behalf. “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,” Gap chief technology officer Sven Gerjets said in a statement. Gap Inc. , which owns Gap, Banana Republic, Old Navy and Athleta, ranks No. 20 in the Top 2000 Database.
The database tracks North America’s largest online retailers by their annual ecommerce sales and more. Gap adds AI styling through Alta Daily Rather than relying only on search boxes and product grids, Gap said it is experimenting with AI tools that can “increasingly understand intent, context and individual preferences.”
As part of that push, Gap is bringing its products into Alta Daily, the AI-powered digital closet and personal styling app. Shoppers can incorporate Gap-brand merchandise into personalized outfit recommendations and visualize the looks on their Alta avatars.
The experience “brings AI-powered styling and discovery into a more visual and personalized environment,” Gap said. To build their virtual wardrobes, Alta users can also digitize clothes they already own. From there, Alta says its app can generate outfits based on factors such as the user’s existing closet, personal style, schedule and weather.
That approach overlaps with the agentic-commerce model Gap says it has been exploring. Alta founder and CEO Jenny Wang told TechCrunch earlier this year that agentic commerce needs “a data layer that understands the shopper’s style preferences.” That data can include a shopper’s closet, past purchases and avatar, she said.
Meanwhile, shoppers can also find Gap Inc. products through Daydream, an AI-powered fashion platform that lets shoppers describe what they want in everyday language. Gap was already directing shoppers to the daydream. ing platform as a product-discovery option during the 2025 holiday season.
Old Navy and Banana Republic add AI tools Gap is also reworking product discovery at Old Navy and Banana Republic around conversational AI. The tools let shoppers describe what they want in natural language and receive product ideas and recommendations.
Rather than translating an idea into keywords or filters, Gap said the AI tools 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.” Gap did not specify whether they are available through the brands’ websites, mobile apps or both.
Gap builds out AI strategy The launches are part of a broader AI strategy Gap has been building across its ecommerce business. In 2024, the retailer established a dedicated Office of AI, focusing on “early use cases, primarily related to employee enablement,” Richard Dickson, Gap’s president and CEO, said at the time.
Since then, the retailer has rolled out AI tools in customer service, personalized recommendations, fulfillment and other areas. Gap is also directing some of its increased capital spending toward that work.
During the company’s August earnings call, chief financial officer Katrina O’Connell said Gap’s capital expenditures will reach $650 million in fiscal 2026, up from $470 million last year. Some of those funds will flow into “the technology work that we’re doing around AI to be able to build capability,” she said.
Agentic commerce is a newer area for the company. In March, Gap became a launch partner for Bold Metrics’ Agent Sizing Protocol. By asking shoppers about fit and preferences, the technology helps conversational shopping agents determine the right apparel size. At the same time, Gap announced support for Google’s Universal Commerce Protocol.
The open standard, co-developed with Shopify, connects merchants with AI-powered shopping and checkout experiences. With the protocol, shoppers will be able to find and purchase Gap products using AI Mode in Google Search and in the Gemini app. Gap was already bringing AI into the customer experience last year. Ahead of the 2025 holi
Audit your product listing attributes now — AI discovery tools rank on contextual fit, not keywords, so thin attribute data (missing occasion, fit, style, weather context) will get deprioritized in AI-generated outfit recommendations.
In the next 30 days, identify whether any AI styling or discovery platforms (Alta Daily, Daydream) accept brand catalog partnerships — early integrations yield preferential placement before these channels commoditize.
Original Source
This briefing is based on reporting from Digital Commerce 360. Use the original post for full primary-source context.
Style
Audience