How Wayfair Has Built AI Into Its Future

Summary

Wayfair CFO Kate Gulliver discusses how the company is integrating AI into both its customer-facing shopping experience and internal business operations. She outlines specific AI tools used for product discovery, finance, and real estate site selection, and emphasizes the company's long track record of adopting new technologies, comparing the potential of AI to the dawn of the internet.

• Wayfair uses AI to power its customer 'Discover' tab, generating images fully populated with purchasable catalog products.
• Internal AI applications include finance close automation, earnings call scenario modeling, and analyzing furniture store clusters for new store locations.
• The CFO believes AI could be larger than the internet and stresses the importance of giving all employees access to AI tools.
• Wayfair's technology DNA traces back to its founding in 1995 at the start of the commercial internet, alongside prior shifts like cloud and mobile.