Rent the Runway has taken home the Best Application of Artificial Intelligence in a Company Award at the prestigious ITAG (Innovation Technology AtlanTec Gateway ) Excellence Awards held in The Hardiman in Galway at the weekend.
Rent the Runway’s European software and technology hub employs around 70 people at its base in the Piscatorial School in the Claddagh area in the heart of Galway. At the awards, Rent the Runway was shortlisted three times across three separate categories.
The Best Application of AI award was given to Rent the Runway for their creation and deployment of a new proprietary machine learning algorithm that has improved the company’s text search function with significant, measurable results.
The AI search now allows users to explore the Rent the Runway site with outfit descriptions, such as “pink sparkly Barbie dress”, or to search for outfits suitable for specific occasions like “Weekend Brunch” or “Holidays to Greece.”
Rent the Runway’s fashion buyers are also benefiting from the new machine learning-powered search service and use it for language-driven searches of historical inventory to inform their purchasing decisions for upcoming seasons.
“The need for the AI-driven solution arose from the increasing challenge of helping users find relevant styles beyond simple keyword matches’’, said Dorothy Creaven, Vice President, Managing Director and site lead at Rent the Runway in Galway. “Traditional search methods had become unscalable due to the diversity of search queries, and we are delighted to see the team’s innovations and efforts recognised and rewarded by the wider tech community.
Rent The Runway established its European technology hub in Galway in April 2019 and is Rent the Runway’s first international office outside the US.
The award-winning team in Galway tackles core technology challenges and influences the next generation of services critical to Rent the Runway’s success and continued growth.
Founded in 2000, ITAG’s mission as a non-profit tech association is to develop technology innovation along the AtlanTec Gateway. The ITAG awards annually showcase the top talent in technology in the West of Ireland.
Founded in 2009, Rent the Runway is disrupting the trillion-dollar fashion industry and changing the way women get dressed through the Closet in the Cloud, the world’s first and largest shared designer closet. RTR’s mission has remained the same since its founding: powering women to feel their best every day. Through RTR, customers can subscribe, rent items a-la-carte and shop resale from hundreds of designer brands.
The Closet in the Cloud offers a wide assortment of millions of items for every occasion, from evening wear and accessories to ready-to-wear, workwear, denim, casual, maternity, outerwear, blouses, knitwear, loungewear, jewellery, handbags, activewear, ski wear, home goods and kidswear. RTR has built a two-sided discovery engine, which connects deeply engaged customers and differentiated brand partners on a powerful platform built around its brand, data, logistics and technology.
Under CEO and Co-Founder Jennifer Hyman’s leadership, RTR has been named to CNBC’s “Disruptor 50” five times in ten years, and has been placed on Fast Company’s Most Innovative Companies list four times, while Hyman herself has been named to the “TIME 100: Most Influential People in the World” and as one of People Magazine’s “Women Changing the World.”
