Sandy Sholl, founder of MadaLuxe Group and founder and chief executive officer of Zelig, sees a bright future in AI. Her virtual try-on and styling technology company Zelig, which launched in 2023 intending to revolutionize the shopping experience, has been a disrupter in the space, reimagining how AI can be used to support consumers’ style and self-expression.

While AI for personal styling is still in its early days, Sholl told WWD that she sees areas for growth and opportunities for transformation. Notably, Sholl said that Zelig launched a beta version with one of the world’s leading fashion e-commerce players, known for its advanced technologies. With this partnership, the companies have openly shared data and insights that have helped fine-tune Zelig’s technology in real time.

“This is more than a product launch,” l Sholl said. “It’s the beginning of a cultural movement. Zelig will lead the industry with AI innovation and fashion expertise to reimagine shopping forever.”

As the industry looks ahead at the potential of AI in the personal styling space, Sholl spoke to WWD about where the technology is today, areas of opportunity and what makes Zelig different.

WWD: What is the current state of AI used for personal styling?

Sandy Sholl: There are flashes of exciting innovation, but also massive gaps, which creates a real opportunity for transformation.

Large AI players like ChatGPT have natural language models that can process fashion image searches, but the experience is far from personal. It’s not customized, consistent or connected to real-time inventory, so even if you get a decent recommendation, you often don’t know where to buy the item or if it’s in stock. It’s a slow, disjointed process.

Many recently launched AI styling systems rely solely on machine learning models trained on product attributes and customer data. While effective to a degree, they often miss the vision and intelligence that only seasoned industry experts can provide. And most aren’t built to scale with the depth, infrastructure or context the fashion world demands.

Fashion isn’t math — it’s more like magic. Algorithms can’t deliver the fantasy and creativity shoppers crave unless they’re trained with real fashion intelligence and guided by style expertise.

WWD: What do you see as the future of AI and personal styling?

S.S.: Imagine a world where fashion history and future inspiration are blended in one place. You’re seeing outfits styled in real-time — layered, swapped, customized to your style — and saving the way you like to wear things, all using a natural language AI model. You’ll have your own dynamic digital closet that you can revisit, clean out, update and draw from as you plan for real-world occasions.

We’re now leaping into a new era where shoppers can use AI to become their own stylist by answering a few questions or simply engaging with an advanced tech platform that learns about their preferences, personalities, moods and events. All of a sudden they can mix and match styles instantly thanks to an AI model that lets each shopper create a dynamic wardrobe that’s uniquely theirs.

This level of interactivity leads to stronger engagement, loyalty and, ultimately, a significant reduction in returns. For retailers, the message is clear: embrace this shift now or risk irrelevance. The virtual styling moment is no longer a nice-to-have — it’s the new front line of experience. The brands that will win will offer a combination of virtual try-on, instant mix-and-match styling, and AI-generated content co-creation that will result in a highly customized shopping experience.

WWD: How is Zelig aiming to disrupt what the industry knows about the use of AI for personal styling?

S.S.: We invented Zelig to revolutionize the shopping experience. We’re not here to add another tool, but to completely reimagine how AI should support style, self-expression and the shopper journey.

Most AI solutions in the market today are one-off features: a basic styling widget here, a chatbot there. At Zelig, we’re building something entirely different — a holistic, full-stack shopping platform powered by AI. Each capability is its own highly developed technology: patented virtual try-on, intelligent styling, social sharing, a dynamic digital closet and a fully integrated UX. Together, these don’t just enhance shopping — they transform it.

Our models also blend authentic industry expertise directly into the AI learning loop. By integrating expert-curated feedback, trend forecasting insights and creative direction into the model, Zelig transforms passive learning into active co-creation. This human-in-the-loop approach accelerates model evolution and ensures output that’s not just data-driven, but also taste-driven, brand-aligned and runway-ready.

In addition, Zelig is bringing groundbreaking data intelligence to retail and brand partners. Unlike traditional tools that stop at purchase logs or abandoned carts, or new AI one-off features, Zelig captures the holistic context of style.

WWD: What makes Zelig different/more efficient?

S.S.: Time is the biggest pressure on all of us and today’s shopper wants to be on the fastest path to looking their best. Yet in a world where milliseconds matter, consumers often have to wait and wait and wait for personalized suggestions and images to load. And then they get results that lack context, taste and cohesion. Zelig AI was built to give people back time.

Our proprietary AI, powered by advanced computer vision and machine learning, creates high-quality, real-time outfit visualizations that scale across even the largest product catalogs. And because we’re embedded directly within the e-commerce experience, everything happens instantly, without you ever having to leave the retailer’s site. To our knowledge, there’s no other B2B solution doing this at our scale.

We’re also redefining what recommendations can be. Instead of surfacing more of the same kind of item, we show you how to style that blouse — pairing it with complementary items to instantly create complete, shoppable looks.

And as shoppers interact with Zelig, they’re training the system — building a personalized AI stylist that evolves with their taste. It’s fast, intelligent and uniquely theirs.

WWD: What would you say is the demand for this kind of technology?

S.S.: This is what the industry has been waiting for — and demand is high. We’re seeing strong traction, with a robust pipeline of retail customers. Shoppers are craving faster, more customized and fun interactive shopping experiences. Meanwhile, retailers are urgently seeking brand-owned solutions that improve conversion, reduce returns and unlock meaningful styling behavioral data. They’re also looking for fresh ways to build loyalty by making shopping more entertaining.

WWD: How does Zelig reduce return rates?

S.S.: Zelig was built to directly address the biggest consumer pain points that lead to returns. There’s no single reason why shoppers return items. Research shows that the two most common drivers are style mismatch — like color — and fit uncertainty. Zelig addresses both.

First, we help shoppers emotionally connect to what they’re buying. Zelig lets them mix and match in real time, experiment with combinations, instantly swap out items and build full looks. By visualizing what works best, they make more confident decisions — leading to fewer returns.

We’re also adding new features to the Zelig experience designed to boost confidence even further by addressing design sizing concerns directly. And our future roadmap is packed with innovative solutions that keep return reduction at the core of our mission.

WWD: What data is Zelig providing, and why does it matter?

S.S.: Zelig unlocks a whole new layer of insight that retailers have never had access to before: style intent. We don’t just show what customers buy — we reveal how they build looks, which pieces they pair together and how their styling preferences evolve.

It informs everything from product development to inventory planning. Retailers can identify unexpected pairings that convert, understand which combinations drive higher AOV and see which items consistently get saved, but not purchased, so they can adjust in real-time.

WWD: Has anything been surprising to you while working with AI and building Zelig?

S.S.: The biggest surprise was just how technically challenging it is to digitally mix and match millions (soon to be billions) of items in real-time. Learning how to best train the AI automation to abstract and create the fashion assets before they were incorporated into the virtual try-on technology was tough because each retailer is different and creates and stores their assets differently. It took years of exploration and trial and error to get it right. Those missteps led to incredibly valuable AI learning and training data.

WWD: Has your work process shifted from luxury fashion to tech?

S.S.: This all began during COVID when I became focused on solving one of fashion’s biggest problems: skyrocketing returns. It was clear the industry had both a responsibility and an opportunity to reduce waste — and the answer had to come from technology.

Building tech is a completely different process, but the core principles of business and leadership don’t change. I did realize over time how my fashion expertise could directly support the development of a machine learning model. I’ve owned and operated companies for over 35 years, across every price point from entry to luxury. And my understanding of how the fashion industry operates, from manufacturing to distribution to e-commerce, proved invaluable in training AI to support brands and retailers across the entire consumer journey and backend operations.

The real evolution in my process has been applying my decades of hands-on experience and industry knowledge to build and train a technology that understands fashion rules, nuance and fit. That’s what makes Zelig different — and what makes this journey so exciting.