I tested the 7 best AI visual recommendation tools for 2025 (and here’s my verdict)

Let's be real: if your e-commerce site is still rocking a generic "customers also bought" widget, you're leaving money on the table. Shoppers today expect a personal touch. Nothing grabs their attention quite like showing them exactly what they want, sometimes even before they know how to search for it. That's where AI visual recommendation engines come in.

These tools are pretty clever. They use computer vision to analyze images and user behavior, going way beyond simple keywords to suggest visually similar or complementary products. In this guide, I’m going to walk you through the top platforms for 2025. We'll look at what they do, compare their main features, and help you figure out which one makes sense for growing your sales.

What is an AI visual recommendation system?

At its core, an AI visual recommendation system is a type of tech that uses artificial intelligence to understand the visual side of your products. Instead of just reading text descriptions or looking at ratings, it actually sees the products, picking up on colors, patterns, shapes, and styles.

Here's a quick rundown of how it works:

1. Image Analysis: The AI scans all your product photos and learns the visual DNA of every single item in your catalog.

2. User Behavior: It watches how people browse your site, paying attention to what they click on, look at, and add to their cart.

3. Smart Suggestions: It then mashes all that data together to create real-time recommendations like "Shop the Look," "Visually Similar," or "Complete Your Outfit."

The whole point is to make shopping feel more intuitive and inspiring, helping customers find stuff they love based on pure aesthetics. It’s something older recommendation engines just can't pull off.

How I picked the best AI visual recommendation tools

To put this list together, I focused on what actually matters to a growing e-commerce business. A cool tool is useless if it's a nightmare to set up or doesn't deliver results.

Here’s what I was looking for:

• Recommendation Quality: Are the suggestions actually good? Do they make sense and feel relevant?

• Ease of Use: Can you get it up and running without needing a team of developers on standby?

• Customization: How much control do you have over the look and logic of the recommendations? Can you make it match your brand?

• Analytics: Does it show you what's working? You need to see if it's actually making you money.

• Scalability: Will it keep up as your business and traffic grow, especially during peak season?

The best AI visual recommendation tools at a glance

Tool	Best For	Key Feature	Starting Price
Syte	Fashion and Apparel	Visual Discovery Suite	Custom
ViSenze	Multimodal Search	Combined Text & Image Search	Custom
Algolia Recommend	Speed and Performance	Sub-10ms API response	Free, then pay-as-you-go
Recombee	Diverse Industries	Flexible Recommendation Models	Free tier, then $99/month
Google Cloud Vertex AI	Enterprise Scale	Fully Managed Google AI	Pay-as-you-go
Vue.ai	AI Orchestration	Full Customer Journey AI	Custom
VisionX	Custom Solutions	Tailored AI Model Development	Custom

The 7 best AI visual recommendation platforms in 2025

Alright, let's dive into the details of the platforms that are really pushing the envelope in visual product discovery.

1. Syte

Syte is built specifically for retailers in apparel, home decor, and jewelry. Its biggest advantage is that it deeply understands fashion attributes, which means its "Shop Similar" and "Shop the Look" features feel incredibly intuitive for shoppers. They've really doubled down on the visual side of shopping, with tools like camera search that let people shop the way they browse on social media.

• The Good:

  • It's freakishly good at picking out similar styles for fashion and home goods.

  • It offers a whole set of tools that go beyond basic recommendations.

  • Merchandisers get a lot of control over how products are presented.

• The Not-So-Good:

  • It's very specialized. If you're selling electronics or B2B products, this isn't for you.

  • Pricing is hidden behind a "contact us" form, which usually means it's not geared toward smaller businesses on a tight budget.

• Pricing: You’ll have to schedule a demo with their sales team to get a custom quote based on your catalog and traffic.

2. ViSenze

ViSenze has a really interesting trick up its sleeve: it combines visual search with regular text search. This "multimodal" approach lets a customer upload a picture and then add filters like "in blue" or "under $50." It's a smart way to help people narrow down their search when they know what they like but can't describe it. They also offer automatic product tagging, which can save you a ton of time.

• The Good:

  • Mixing visual and text search is a great experience for users.

  • The auto-tagging feature can seriously improve your site's overall search function.

  • You get solid analytics to see what people are searching for.

• The Not-So-Good:

  • Because it does more, it can be a bit more complicated to set up than a simple widget.

  • Like Syte, the pricing is a mystery until you talk to them, which suggests it’s aimed at larger companies.

• Pricing: ViSenze uses custom pricing. You have to request a demo to get the details.

3. Algolia Recommend

Anyone in the search world has heard of Algolia, and they're mostly known for being ridiculously fast. Their AI Recommend product is no exception, spitting out recommendations in milliseconds so your site never slows down. While it started with text search, its "Looking Similar" feature uses image recognition for visual suggestions. It’s a solid choice if you're already using Algolia Search or if speed is your absolute top priority.

• The Good:

  • It’s incredibly fast (under 10ms response time), which is great for both users and your SEO.

  • The pricing is transparent and based on usage, so you can start small.

  • It works perfectly with their fantastic text search product.

• The Not-So-Good:

  • Its visual features are good, but not as deeply specialized as a tool like Syte.

  • To really get the most out of it, you’ll probably need a developer to help with the finer details.

• Pricing: Algolia has a free Build plan with 10,000 recommendation requests a month. After that, paid plans are pay-as-you-go, costing $0.60 for every extra 1,000 requests.

4. Recombee

Recombee is a flexible recommendation engine that isn't just for e-commerce, it’s also used for real estate, video streaming, and news sites. That flexibility is its main appeal. It gives you a bunch of different models to work with and lets you get super specific with your recommendation rules using its own query language. This means you have a ton of control over what gets shown to your customers.

• The Good:

  • It can be configured for pretty much any industry or type of product.

  • You can recommend things other than just products, like categories or brands.

  • The free tier is generous, making it easy for small businesses to try it out.

• The Not-So-Good:

  • All that customizability comes with a steeper learning curve than some of the plug-and-play options.

  • Visual recommendations aren't its primary focus, so it might not feel as polished as others on this list.

• Pricing: Recombee offers a free plan for up to 100,000 recommendation requests per month. Paid plans start at $99/month.

5. Google Cloud Vertex AI Search

For businesses operating at a huge scale, Google's Vertex AI Search is the big gun. This isn't just a widget, it's a full-blown platform that runs on the same machine learning models Google uses. It lets you fine-tune recommendations to hit specific goals like conversions or revenue, and it comes with the reliability you'd expect from Google.

• The Good:

  • You're tapping into Google's massive and powerful AI infrastructure.

  • It’s built to handle gigantic product catalogs and huge traffic spikes without breaking a sweat.

  • You keep total ownership of your data and the models you build.

• The Not-So-Good:

  • It's probably way too complex and expensive for most small or medium-sized businesses.

  • You pretty much have to commit to the Google Cloud ecosystem to use it effectively.

• Pricing: Vertex AI is pay-as-you-go. For an idea, training an image model costs about $3.47 per hour, and running predictions costs around $1.38 per hour. It’s tough to predict the final bill without digging in.

6. Vue.ai

Vue.ai calls itself an "AI Orchestrator," and it tries to do a lot more than just product recommendations. It’s a platform designed to automate workflows across the entire customer experience, from AI-powered product tagging to personalized marketing emails. The visual recommendation part is just one feature in a much bigger package.

• The Good:

  • A good all-in-one choice if you want to use AI in multiple parts of your business.

  • It’s great at automating the tedious parts of catalog management with its AI tagging.

  • It can connect recommendations to your email marketing and other channels.

• The Not-So-Good:

  • This is probably overkill (and too expensive) if you just need a recommendation engine.

  • It's another "talk to sales" product, so you can't just sign up and start playing around.

• Pricing: Vue.ai uses custom pricing. You’ll have to get in touch for a demo to get a quote.

7. VisionX

VisionX is different from everyone else on this list because it's not a ready-made product. It's a company that builds custom AI and computer vision tools from scratch. You'd go to them if you have a really unique need that an off-the-shelf platform can't handle. They’ll work with you to build a custom AI model that fits your business goals and tech setup perfectly.

• The Good:

  • You get a solution that is built just for you.

  • They have deep expertise in computer vision.

  • They can make it work with any weird legacy systems you might have.

• The Not-So-Good:

  • This is a much bigger, more expensive, and more time-consuming path than buying a SaaS tool.

  • It requires a lot of your team's time for project management.

• Pricing: It’s all project-based, so you’ll need to have a detailed chat with them to figure out the scope and cost.

Tips for choosing the right AI visual recommendation tool

Feeling a bit lost in all the options? I get it. Here are a few simple things to think about to help you decide:

• Start with your goal: What are you actually trying to achieve? Do you want to increase the average order value with cross-sells, or just help people discover more products with visually similar items? Knowing your main goal will help you narrow things down.

• Be honest about your tech resources: If you don't have developers ready to jump on a new project, look for platforms with no-code setups. Tools like Algolia or Recombee are easier to get started with on your own.

• Look at your product catalog: If you sell fashion or home decor, a specialized tool like Syte is probably your best bet. For a more general catalog, a flexible engine like Recombee could be perfect.

• Think past the widget: So, what happens after a customer finds a product they love? They might have questions. Make sure your customer support is ready for the extra engagement.

Beyond AI visual recommendation: Unify your customer knowledge

Using an AI visual recommendation engine is a great way to make shopping on your site more engaging. These tools are fantastic at answering the unspoken question: "show me more things that look like this."

But the customer journey doesn't stop there. What happens when someone has a question about shipping, materials, or whether an item is in stock? They're going to contact your support team. This is where the other half of a smart AI strategy comes in: automating your text-based support.

While visual AI helps customers find products, a knowledge platform like eesel AI helps them get answers. eesel AI connects to your existing helpdesk (like Zendesk or Freshdesk) and pulls together all of your scattered information, from past support tickets and help articles to documents in Confluence and Google Docs. It learns your brand's voice and way of doing things almost instantly.

You can get an AI agent up and running in minutes, not months. It even has a cool simulation mode that lets you test it on your past tickets before it ever talks to a real customer. So while visual recommendation engines handle what customers see, eesel AI handles what they ask, creating a smooth experience from start to finish.

A screenshot of the eesel AI simulation mode, which allows testing the AI agent on past tickets before deployment, a key feature in AI visual recommendation and support.

Ready to automate the other half of your customer journey? Give eesel AI a try.