Getting expert DIY advice from generative AI

Giving DIY customers confidence

As any DIYer will tell you, painting projects are rarely straightforward. From choosing the right color to visualizing how it will look while accounting for things like natural lighting, DIY painting is surprisingly complicated. But what if there was a way to make homeowners feel more confident about their choices, using digital technologies to enable people to “try before they buy”?

That’s exactly what French do-it-yourself retailer Bricorama has done, using generative AI (gen AI) to give customers expert advice on their painting projects. Named pAInt, this gen AI shopping assistant saves time, effort and money. Customers can simply describe their project and the platform will suggest paint colors, quantities and more.

Customers can simply visit bricorama.fr, create a user profile and log in to pAInt. The platform’s advanced gen AI will start a conversation and ask questions about their painting project and the colors they’d like to use. From there, pAInt will suggest different color options, offer advice and tutorials, and provide color trends and pictures of similar projects to help them visualize the end result.

As pAInt is fully integrated with Bricorama’s existing e-commerce systems, customers can easily add recommended products to their wishlist or basket. The platform also saves projects to user profiles so they can access them later, which is very handy when repainting a room as you can quickly find the exact color you used via your profile.

A creative and responsible approach to AI

pAInt was built on Azure OpenAI Service and leveraged the natural language interaction and contextual understanding capabilities of ChatGPT services. Together with Bricorama’s business and technology teams, we trained pAInt on Bricorama’s propriety content and documents, such as paint can labels. This ensures pAInt can provide relevant suggestions for products available in-store or on the Bricorama website. Creative talent including copywriters and graphic designers developed the platform’s voice and guidance messages, plus visual aspects such as style pictures, color examples and the user-friendly interface.

We also applied a responsible AI approach with safeguards to limit the platform’s response to painting and home improvement information only and to ensure compliance with the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

Painting a brighter future

As part of pAInt’s development Bricorama established new roles, monitoring processes and organizational structures in addition to processes for ongoing maintenance and improvement. While pAInt is currently an online tool, Bricorama plans to provide self-service access in-store and the retailer’s store designers have already begun to build this experience. Additionally, a dedicated version of pAInt is in development for vendors to help them better support clients.

An employee version is also in the works, and there are plans to expand the platform to include other home improvement categories and products in the future, such as bathroom and gardening. It’s all part of Bricorama’s effort to help pAInt become a trusted advisor for expert guidance on DIY projects.

For Bricorama, pAInt is supporting its goal to reposition its brand as the DIY champion of home improvement projects for French consumers. Ultimately, it’s driving brand awareness and increasing customer loyalty. pAInt has also showcased the potential for generative AI to enhance the customer experience and provide valuable guidance in unique decision-making processes.