TikTok’s hiring plans reveal how it wants to use AI to bolster its shopping experience

TikTok is staffing up to improve its e-commerce tech. It wants to hire a handful of workers in the US to enhance its shopping experience with features like virtual try-ons and generative-AI shopping tools, per its jobs portal.

The company has several job openings in Seattle and San Jose for algorithm engineers focused on e-commerce and generative AI. The staffers will focus on building tools for “product creativity generation,” “generation and optimization of product materials,” virtual try-ons, and other tech-forward shopping features, per the job postings.

Virtual try-ons often use augmented reality to show users how clothing looks on them before making a purchase, though companies like Google are also experimenting with using AI to help users see how an outfit looks on models with different body types.

TikTok already offers a clothing try-on template for standard videos in its AR platform, Effect House. It may be considering bringing a similar feature into its e-commerce platform, Shop. Given how popular AR filters are elsewhere in the app, it wouldn’t be a big leap for the company to bring the tech to Shop in order to make its clothing and accessories sales process more engaging.

TikTok wouldn’t be the first social-media platform to try this, either. In recent years, Instagram and Pinterest have both launched AR-powered try-on features for users to test out products like makeup. Snapchat, Google, Walmart, and Amazon are also experimenting with different try-on features for sneakers and other garments.

TikTok and its social-media peers may have an advantage over traditional e-commerce apps when it comes to getting people to test virtual try-ons given that users are already acclimated to using camera filters for other kinds of videos.

TikTok is hungry to find any way to boost sales in a crowded US e-commerce market dominated by Amazon. Shopping is a major focus for the company this year. About a third of its current US job openings are for e-commerce roles, per TikTok’s jobs portal.

But growth for TikTok Shop has been relatively modest in 2024, with order-tracking platform Route reporting a 35% increase in order volume between January and June, compared to 63% on e-commerce app Shein over the same period.

A TikTok spokesperson did not respond to multiple requests for comment from B-17 about its plans for virtual try-ons and other AI-backed e-commerce features.