Debenhams Group accelerates AI adoption with AWS to enhance personalisation and boost customer experience across brands

Debenhams Group Accelerates AI Adoption to Enhance Operations and Customer Experience

Debenhams Group, the online retail leader behind brands such as Debenhams, PrettyLittleThing, boohoo, boohooMAN, and Karen Millen, has deepened its partnership with Amazon Web Services (AWS) to speed up AI integration across its brands. This strategic move focuses on improving operational efficiency, personalisation, and speed to market through AI-powered tools.

The Group’s existing use of AWS cloud services supports its marketplace platform, enabling rapid onboarding of third-party sellers and a wider product range. Now, Debenhams is set to deploy advanced AI technologies like Generative AI (GenAI) to further streamline operations and enhance personalised shopping experiences.

How AI Is Improving Product Management and Customer Engagement

Using Amazon Bedrock, a fully managed service for building and scaling GenAI applications, Debenhams Group automates the creation of product descriptions and translations. This automation has made the process 20 times faster and enables translations into six languages without additional manual effort. The result is quicker product availability across multiple countries, improving localisation and consistency.

Another innovation is the AI Room Styler, developed through AWS’s Prototyping investment programme. It allows customers to upload photos, pick a design style, and receive personalised decor suggestions linked directly to shoppable items. AI-driven product attribution and taxonomy improvements also make search and navigation more intuitive, helping customers find relevant products faster.

Scaling AI Solutions Across Brands

Following successful implementations at Debenhams and its associated labels, the Group plans to roll out AWS AI technologies to other brands, with boohoo recently adopting these tools within weeks. This expansion supports faster innovation cycles and drives growth by optimising both back-end operations and front-end customer experiences.

Leadership Perspectives

Dan Finley, CEO of Debenhams Group, highlighted that the collaboration with AWS is central to transforming the Group into a modern, technology-led retailer. He emphasised replacing outdated legacy systems with scalable, cloud-first architectures that support ongoing innovation and resilience. The investment in AI not only future-proofs the business but also enhances speed, intelligence, and personalisation in customer interactions.

Duncan Stewart, Head of Retail & Consumer Packaged Goods UK & Ireland at AWS, praised Debenhams Group for its innovative digital commerce platform built on AWS. He pointed out that the cloud infrastructure gives Debenhams the flexibility to build and deploy AI-powered products rapidly, supporting business productivity and growth.

Practical Takeaways for Operations and Product Development Professionals

• Automate repetitive tasks: Using AI to generate product content and translations drastically cuts down manual work, improving speed and consistency.
• Enhance customer experience: Interactive AI tools can provide personalised suggestions that increase engagement and conversion.
• Leverage cloud scalability: Cloud-first architectures allow rapid deployment of new AI features without the constraints of legacy systems.
• Plan for cross-brand implementation: Successful AI pilots can be scaled across multiple brands to unify and amplify their impact.

For professionals looking to deepen their understanding of AI applications in retail operations and product management, exploring targeted AI courses and training can be valuable. Resources such as the Complete AI Training courses by job role offer practical skills to support AI-driven transformation efforts.