Jessica Couch always had a vision for transforming the fashion industry in the digital age. As an experienced marketing and innovation strategy consultant and founder of Luxor and Finch, the Cornell University graduate recognized that the fashion landscape is rapidly changing. And specifically, in the digital era, getting products to customers has become more challenging.
The main issue Couch began working to prioritize, though, is fit. For customers who don’t have the average body size in particular, there is some friction with online shopping when there is uncertainty how the clothes fit due to material and proportions.
“I’m not the average shape or body. I’m athletic, I’m tall, and I’m from the south. So when it comes to clothing, the number one thing for me is fit. For other people that might not be the case, but fit is super important.”
Couch began conceptualizing a solution in 2016, and by 2022 had created a beta platform she called “Looks.” A little later on, she rebranded and refined this program as the early form of the startup she now runs, dubbed Looks AI.
Fit Intelligence and style discovery
Looks AI is a fashion discovery engine and “fit intelligence” platform designed to make customers the most powerful sales force for online brands. Operating both in the Triangle and in New York City, it provides a better way for those customers to discover new new apparel that fits their taste and body type.
With the ongoing friction in online shopping, the startup recognizes the usefulness of peer-to-peer interactions for fashion brands, and accordingly cultivates opportunities for shoppers to serve as influencers.
Couch took note of how bloggers would post links of items on their page and earn commission, inspiring people’s fashion choices as they went. Yet, she wanted Looks AI to stand out amid other creator-first discovery platforms (like ShopMy and LTK). So she decided to implement an influencer-centered model in her existing b2c platform.
How it works
At the time of this writing, Looks AI is in merchant partnership development. The startup pivoted from its beta web platform to a practice of partnering with Shopify brands and is inviting fashion brands making under $100 million a year to join their pilot program (which began this past spring).
Today, Looks AI functions primarily through a Shopify widget for online retail brands, built with a AI/ML matching relevancy system to connect visual reviews from past customers to those viewing the site.
If a user buys clothing from a particular brand and is satisfied with the look, they can post it on the Looks AI app, with the post serving as a “fit review” for anyone to shop. If and when others subsequently purchase that item, the user who originally posted it earns a commission—almost like a reward for inspiring the purchase.
“It keeps the ecosystem going and it helps [the users] to become kind of like brand ambassadors without having 500,000 followers like you have to do with other platforms,” Couch said. “And it’s all based around fit and the pain point.”
Looks AI doesn’t reinvent the affiliate marketing model, according to Couch. Rather, it offers a discovery-based ecosystem of people who share similar taste, almost like digital stylists.
“Our ethos is a little different than just ‘paying to play’ or putting a link in your bio and letting people shop [for your looks],” she said. “It’s genuinely like women finding other women they can trust and finding new items based on these systems.”
One of the main challenges with development was the shift away from partnering with third-party platforms.
“What we found is that inventory was not always up to date on those platforms,” she said. “So, because our tool is for e-commerce, it’s very important that the inventory be as up-to-date as possible.”
QUICK BITS
Startup: Looks AI
Founder: Jessica Couch
Founded: 2022
Team size: 2
Location: Triangle, NYC
Website: looks.fit
Looks AI’s revenue model, meanwhile, consists of commissions; in the future there will also be advertising on the website.
Couch is especially grateful to have received grants from NC IDEA and Knox Street Studios to help fuel development up to this point. Looks AI also became a recipient of the Wocstar Capital fund in 2025.
Future plans
Looks AI is still developing new features, but getting back to that original focus on fit, Couch said that she sees herself partnering with more specific groups who don’t have typical body sizes, like athletes. The founder also looks forward to promoting Looks AI at the COTERIE by Informa trade show in New York this September.
Overall, she hopes to connect with more investors and clothing companies whose visions for innovating fashion technology align with her own.
“[This will] help to create a community,” she said. “There is always a missing part of the community for digital fashion buying, especially for e-commerce.”
Those interested in trying the pilot or implementing the tool into their shopping experience can explore options on the Looks AI website.
