Grouping 80 products by hand is awful. Each product has to be opened and then the color name copied and pasted into the group and a crap hex code copied from a colour search engine because there is no option to copy the existing hex code to the group. This is very prone to error. 1 hour of work to create a lot of inaccuracy for 200 more products to do the same.
This is the problem that Rubik Combined Listings aims to solve using “AI Magic Fill”. First you select the parent product. The Rubik AI is then automatically going to read the titles, tags, metafields and the first image of each product to suggest how to group your combined listings. It then suggests the option name, the option values, swatch colours and corresponding hex codes. You simply click a button to accept the magic fill and with one more click you can also override anything that doesn’t quite work out as you would have done had you done it manually. In this guide we’ll give you an honest look into exactly how the shopify combined listings AI actually works in Rubik, its strengths and its weaknesses and any areas where you still need to double check its work.
In this post
- What Magic Fill actually does
- How the AI reads your products
- One-click bulk fill
- When Magic Fill works best
- When it does not
- Manual override workflow
- Real-time live preview
- AI credits and pricing
- FAQ
- Related reading
What Magic Fill actually does
We then create a combined listing group in Rubik. The listing group shows an empty form to display options, their values, swatch type, and colors. Without Magic Fill, we would have to manually enter every field. With Magic Fill, we simply click a button and the form automatically fills with the desired information.
Specifically, the AI fills:
- Option name (Color, Material, Size, Finish, Length)
- Option value per product (Navy, Oat, Charcoal, Sand)
- Swatch type (color, image, text)
- Hex codes when the option type is color
- Display order based on the source product order or a sensible default
That is the demo. What is happening underneath is more interesting.
How the AI reads your products
Four inputs feed the model for every product in the group:
- Product title. “Linen Shirt Oat” is a gift. The word Oat is right there.
- Product tags. “color:navy” or just “navy” both work.
- Featured image. A visual pass picks the dominant color if the title is useless.
- Metafields. If you already store a color metafield, the AI uses that verbatim.
It weighs the title, tag, and other metafields. If it finds none of those it defaults to the title. If the title is “Linen Shirt” it uses the image to choose the color hex based on the dominant color of the product image.
Here is a table of how the four signals interact in practice:
| Signal present | Confidence | Typical outcome |
|---|---|---|
| Metafield | Very high | Value taken verbatim |
| Title with color word | High | Extracted, hex looked up |
| Tag only | Medium | Normalized, hex approximated |
| Image only | Medium-low | Dominant color picked visually |
| Nothing | Low | Flagged for manual review |
One-click bulk fill
What happens when Magic Fill is actually good? A group of 30 products, and I just do an Auto-Fill All. The AI runs once per product (in parallel, which is awesome) and then generates the entire form and configures everything: the hex codes for the options, the named options themselves, and the order in which everything appears – although the AI seems to decide that for me, likely in an order that makes sense (alphabetic order, or grouped by family in some cases).
You scan the object, fix any errors, then click save, as the process is now extremely fast and usually only takes a couple of minutes.
Even when grouping at scale (hundreds of products) the AI visual assistant can check out your entire catalog and suggest new groups of products. Read how Rubik AI groups Shopify products automatically.
When Magic Fill works best
Title formatting looks correct for descriptive product names. Title formatting looks correct for descriptive product names. Title formatting looks correct for descriptive product names. These product names include color in the title. If we followed the advice given in the article, we would not include color in the title, but our product titles already look more like those found in a department store than an online catalog. Titles, tags and metafields all contain the color of each product. The AI has done a very good job in correctly tagging the product names. Mostly metafields were used to assist the AI in correct product name tagging.
Color variants are the sweet spot. Material variants (cotton, linen, silk) also work. Size variants also work if the title has the size word.
When it does not
Generic titles without distinguishing words. ” Linen Shirt” and “Linen Shirt 2” and “Linen Shirt Final.” The AI has nothing to work with. It will fall back to image analysis and probably pick hex codes that almost match but not quite.
Other failure modes:
- Products with no featured image (you would think this is rare, it is not)
- Highly stylized product shots on pure white, where the dominant color is white
- Multi-color products (tie dye, gradients) where picking one hex feels wrong
- Brand-specific color names with no standard hex (“Morning Mist” vs “Pantone 123”)
Magic Fill this product manually instead of automatically, so that it can be corrected properly.
Manual override workflow
Everything the AI generates is editable. You can change the color swatch by selecting a new hex code from the color picker, or change the text of an option value. You can even rearrange rows by dragging and dropping. No section is locked or otherwise immutable.
Fill Rhythm with Magic: First, have Magic Fill fill about 90% of the rhythm. Go back through and spend about 60 seconds correcting the occasional screw up. Don’t worry too much about having it 100% perfect. By the time you filled it, the AI is going to have done a good job. Now, go through and correct the last 10% so it doesn’t fall off a cliff at the end.
Real-time live preview
While you are building a group you can view a live preview on the right side of the Rubik admin. The swatches will dynamically update as you change parameters such as hex codes, labels, spacing and layout. No more saving and viewing the individual storefront tab every 10 seconds. What you see while building the group is exactly what the customer will see while viewing the group.
This is actually really nice. Most apps make you save and then go to the store and manually refresh. This just refreshes automatically.
AI credits and pricing
This product uses AI credits. One credit per product. So a group of 30 products would use 30 credits. Hence the allowances for the number of products you can plan at one time.
| Plan | Price | Groups | AI credits |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 | 5 | 100 |
| Starter | $10 | 100 | 1,000 |
| Advanced | $30 | 500 | 5,000 |
| Premium | $50 | 5,000 | 50,000 |
Annual host billing is 17% less than our standard prices. Monthly host credits get recycled every month. Our store ceilings are high because you fill each group of items only once with Magic Fill.
See the live demo store, watch the tutorial video, or read the getting started guide.
Frequently asked questions
What is AI Magic Fill in Rubik Combined Listings?
Product titles/tags/metafields/featured image content can automatically be copied and pasted into a single click button in listings, that then fills in all of the option name/values/swatch color and hex code fields in the combined listing group fields with a single click.
Does Magic Fill work for non-color variants?
Yes. It also handles variations of material, size, finish, and length. Tags or names for these variations need to be created first.
Can I edit what the AI suggests?
All fields are customizable. You can change the hex codes, option values, reorder options, and change swatch types and everything else. The AI gives you a good starting point to customize from!
How many AI credits does one group use?
One credit per product. 20 products therefore are 20 credits. Credits reset at the start of each month.
What happens if the AI cannot identify a color?
Rubik lets you mark an product as reviewed manully, instead of guessing. All you need to do is a click!
Does Magic Fill change my products or metafields?
No. It only writes to the Rubik group configuration and not your actual product titles, tags, etc. This is just for widget configuration.
Can I run Magic Fill on an existing group?
It retains the custom info I added, and running Magic Fill on the group again will give me a new batch of suggestions without having to start over.
