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Max Fashion Brings AI Virtual Try-Ons To Gulf Online Shoppers

Landmark Group’s value fashion brand is using Google Cloud’s generative AI to tackle the returns problem that has dogged ecommerce since its beginning.

Published

4 months ago

June 13, 2026

Joanna Melki

max fashion brings ai virtual try-ons to gulf online shoppers

Buying clothes online has always involved a gamble. A garment that looks right on a model may hang differently on the person ordering it, and the result is a cycle of returns that costs retailers money and customers patience. Max Fashion, part of Dubai-based Landmark Group, is betting that generative AI can improve the experience.

The brand has launched what it describes as one of the region’s first virtual try-on experiences, built on Google Cloud’s Virtual Try-On API and generative AI vision models delivered through the Gemini Enterprise platform. Starting in the UAE, shoppers browsing Max’s digital platforms can see realistic previews of how garments drape, fit and move across different body types before committing to a purchase.

google cloud max fashion partnership

For many online shoppers, uncertainty is the single biggest barrier between scrolling and buying. “It helps address real purchase barriers, particularly around fit and confidence, while allowing us to create a richer and more engaging shopping journey,” explained Hani Weiss, chief executive officer of Max Fashion, who framed the rollout as part of the brand’s ambition to make fashion more accessible.

Bala Subramaniam, senior vice president and head of omnichannel at Max, seemed even more enthusiastic about the technology: “For the first time, a customer browsing on their phone has the same confidence as one standing in our fitting room”.

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Whether AI previews can genuinely match a fitting room remains to be proven at scale. The technology’s value will depend on how accurately it renders fabric and fit across the full range of bodies that shop at a value fashion brand, and on whether shoppers trust what they see enough to change their behavior.

For Google Cloud, the deployment is also a statement about where regional retail is heading. “AI-driven personalization is no longer a luxury, it is a core business imperative for forward-thinking retailers,” says Ziad Jammal, general manager for Google Cloud UAE, Levant and North Africa. If the returns data eventually backs that up, the rest of the region’s retailers will be watching closely.

Related Topics:Artificial Intelligence Google Google Cloud

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Microsoft Plans $10 Billion-Plus Gulf Expansion Despite Iran Conflict

Security is shaping Microsoft’s approach, from resilience work with governments to what it will say about how the money splits by country.

Published

4 days ago

September 24, 2026

Nour Nasir

Microsoft

Microsoft is planning more than $10 billion of investment across the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Kuwait through 2030, Vice Chair and President Brad Smith told Reuters, calling the spending schedule aggressive. The Iranian conflict that began on February 28 has not persuaded the company to scale back.

“We’re sustaining all the investments we planned to make before this conflict started, and we are in fact adding to them,” Smith said. The $10 billion-plus total does not, however, show how large those additions are.

The investment, which Smith described as part of Microsoft’s continued infrastructure expansion, is aimed at cloud and AI infrastructure and at the company’s growing regional operations. Microsoft also intends to put more than $400 million into subsea and terrestrial connectivity across the Middle East by 2030.

The spending fits the region’s own ambitions too. Gulf governments have been investing heavily in AI infrastructure as part of a push to diversify their economies beyond oil and gas and turn themselves into global technology hubs. Major cloud and AI providers have been drawn in part by the land and relatively low-cost energy on offer.

Microsoft is widening its partnerships with regional AI companies, though not on identical terms. In 2024, it invested $1.5 billion in Abu Dhabi-based G42 for a minority stake, and Smith currently sits on G42’s board. Saudi Arabia’s Humain and Qatar’s Qai are working with Microsoft on selected priority areas, but Smith said the company does not plan to make capital investments in either.

Also Read: Egypt’s Mobile Wallets Are Booming, But Cash Still Has Power

The conflict has added another strand to Microsoft’s work in the region. Since it began, Smith said, the company has supported regional partners with digital resilience assessments, and it is now working with Gulf countries through a digital resilience initiative focused on preparedness and the protection of critical data.

So far, the company has given no country-by-country breakdown of the investment, citing security among other factors. So while the headline figure is public, how Microsoft divides the spending among the four countries is not.