AI is the new trendsetter in fashion and it’s changing everything

As this season’s Paris Fashion Week goes on, brands are working to create and sell the designs they’ve just presented on runways. In the future, those designs may combine the talent of a fashion designer with the power of artificial intelligence (AI). This would help bring clothes and accessories to market faster, selling them more efficiently, and improving the customer experience.

By now, everybody knows of OpenAI’s ChatGPT, the AI chatbot that became an overnight sensation. ChatGPT is just one example of generative AI, a technology using algorithms to create new content. Rather than simply identifying and classifying information, it creates new information by leveraging foundation models. These are deep learning models that can handle multiple complex tasks at the same time.  While the fashion industry has experimented with other popular technologies like the metaverse, NFTs, digital IDs, and augmented or virtual reality, it has so far had little experience with AI. But with the rate at which the industry is evolving, it is possible that in the next three to five years, AI could add $150 billion to this industry. From co-designing to speeding content development processes, generative AI creates new space for creativity. 

Areas where AI is optimizing the fashion industry

Product designing

AI does not rely on trend reports and market analysis alone to inform designs for next season’s collection. Both mass-market fashion retailers and luxury brands’ creative directors can use AI to analyze in real time various types of unstructured data. For example, it quickly aggregates and performs sentiment analysis from videos on social media or model trends from multiple sources of consumer data. In December 2022, a group of Hong Kong–based fashion designers from the Laboratory for Artificial Intelligence in Design (AiDLab) held a fashion show featuring generative-AI-supported designs.

Marketing

Finding a perfect marketing strategy is more often than not a game of numbers. Think of an app like TikTok: there’s no single winning formula for going viral on the platform. Instead, the more you produce, the higher your chances are of becoming a trending topic and boosting brand awareness and sales. Prompting a generative-AI-powered video platform to create short-form videos can help save time and marketing costs

Sales and customer service

AI plays an important role in improving the customer service of brands. In July 2022, apparel retailer Stitch Fix said it was experimenting with GPT-3 and DALL-E 2, the text-to-image AI generator, to boost sales and improve customer satisfaction with better styling services. These generative models are being tested to help stylists quickly and accurately interpret loads of customer feedback and curate products that customers would be likelier to purchase.

Sustainable fashion

One of the key challenges in sustainable fashion is sourcing materials that minimize environmental impact.  AI algorithms can analyse vast databases of material properties, supplier information, and sustainability certifications to recommend the most eco-friendly options. By considering factors such as biodiversity, water usage, chemical toxicity, and carbon footprint, AI can help brands make informed decisions about sourcing materials that align with their sustainability goals.

Risks arising with the use of AI

Critics sometimes target designers for creating derivative works and copycat designs. Determining who owns the intellectual property and creative rights to AI-generated works, which could be based on multimodal data sources such as other designers’ past collections. Thus, it will be decided on a case-by-case basis until there is a strong legal precedent. (Although it doesn’t involve AI, the high-profile battle between Hermès and artist Mason Rothschild surrounding MetaBirkin NFTs, in which a judge ruled that the NFTs infringed on Hermès’s trademark, shows how fashion brands can become embroiled in legal conundrums when new technologies emerge.)

Another risk is bias and fairness in generative-AI systems, particularly around biased data sets. This presents a reputational challenge for brands that rely on the technology. For example, if an image-generating tool produces an advertising campaign with inappropriate or offensive images, the brand’s reputation could suffer. And pointing fingers at the company AI in an attempt at damage control may do little to calm consumer ire. Moreover, employees who use generative AI are not fully aware of its shortcomings and may fail to check for errors. Thus, businesses must regularly train employees and provide them with the resources they need to understand how to use the technology.

AI is not just automation—it’s about augmentation and acceleration. That means giving fashion professionals and creatives the technological tools to do certain tasks dramatically faster. This frees them up to spend more of their time doing things that only humans can do. It also means creating systems to serve customers better. Here’s where to begin.