Wayfair applied OpenAI models to reduce manual work in catalog management and supplier support for its roughly 40 million-item catalog. The company reports the AI system has validated more than 11 million product specifications and now automates about 41,000 supplier support tickets per month, with automation reaching up to 70% of ticket volume in some workflows.
Reworking product attribute tagging
Wayfair’s catalog covers nearly a thousand product classes and requires thousands of tags—about 47,000—to describe attributes such as color, material and size. Earlier in-house tagging models were effective but costly at scale; manual review could not keep pace with volume.
The new approach uses web information and Wayfair’s internal definitions to generate a labeling guide that OpenAI models consult when assigning tags. The system reviews product records, assigns labels, and flags low-confidence or high-risk changes for supplier confirmation. Associates inspect samples through a structured audit, and suppliers can validate edits before they go live.
Wayfair says the AI-powered catalog quality system has processed more than 1 million products and that a controlled A/B test produced higher impressions, clicks and page rank for the treatment group. Carolyn Phillips is quoted as saying the company plans to expand the capability to cover every new product added to the catalog.
Automating supplier workflows with Wilma
Wayfair also integrated OpenAI models into its custom supplier support platform, Wilma. The models read incoming tickets, add context from internal databases, identify what suppliers need, and route issues to the right teams. The team moved from idea to production in under one month, according to the company.
Dozens of agentic workflows assist with tasks like reviewing past records, proposing next steps, and drafting responses for human review. Wayfair measures how often AI recommendations match human decisions using an “alignment rate”; workflows that meet preset thresholds can move from assistive to semi-autonomous modes.
Company leaders highlighted the OpenAI partnership as valuable for rapid iteration. Fiona Tan described the relationship as more than access to models, and Brian Seaman said the models bring together cross-journey context that helps resolve supplier issues faster. Wayfair has deployed about 1,200 ChatGPT Enterprise seats across its roughly 12,000-person workforce and continues exploring additional OpenAI models to extend these capabilities.
Original source: OpenAI News