IKEA has picked GrokStyle to power visual search inside IKEA Place, its augmented reality app. GrokStyle builds vision-based artificial intelligence for retail. The San Francisco company announced the deal on March 16, 2018.
The feature lets shoppers find furniture with a photo instead of a keyword. A user points the phone at a piece they like, frames it and taps search. Then the app shows similar IKEA products. Each one can be placed in the room through augmented reality, so the shopper sees how it fits.
The search arrived with the 2.0 update to IKEA Place. That update went live in the iOS App Store on March 12. According to GrokStyle cofounder Sean Bell, the app covers the full current IKEA catalog across all countries.
Michael Valdsgaard led digital transformation at IKEA. He said one meeting and demo with GrokStyle was enough to convince him to move ahead right away. The founders, for their part, said augmented reality and visual search work well together, because they help people make design choices for their homes.
GrokStyle’s technology comes out of research at Cornell University. Dr. Sean Bell and Professor Kavita Bala founded the company on that work. It has also drawn outside attention. CB Insights recognized the startup in 2017, after it had won an award at the LDV Vision Summit in 2016.
