Learn how AI is revolutionizing trends prediction, supply chain optimization, and customer experience in fashion retail

Generative AI’s Impact on the Fashion Industry

As the intersection of technology and fashion continues to expand, artificial intelligence (AI) is quickly emerging as a revolutionary force in the fashion business. According to McKinsey’s research, generative AI may increase operational profitability in the garment, fashion, and luxury industries by $150 billion to $275 billion over the next three to five years. This stratospheric figure highlights the critical role that AI will play in the future of fashion, not just as a disruptor but also as a value producer. AI has the ability to significantly and diversely reshape the fashion environment, from anticipating trends and improving supply chains to tailoring the purchasing experience and enabling virtual try-ons.

Forecasting trends

Fashion is inextricably linked to trends; it’s all about being current with what’s hot and what’s not. AI has shown to be a useful tool in this regard, transforming how companies anticipate and capitalize on fashion trends.

How does artificial intelligence (AI) forecast fashion trends? AI can analyze massive volumes of data, extracting information from a variety of sources like social media platforms, fashion blogs, online shopping sites, and global fashion events. This data study covers a wide range of topics, including color schemes, fabric selection, styles, and even regional fashion preferences. In doing so, AI can detect patterns and anticipate trends with remarkable precision.

Take, for example, the international technology firm IBM. They collaborated with the Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT) to use AI for fashion capabilities, which included a set of APIs designed and trained exclusively for the fashion sector. These APIs used deep learning, natural language processing, and computer vision to help fashion firms improve the consumer experience, refine product design and development, optimize merchandising and planning processes, and strengthen merchandise performance analysis.

Another example is Heuritech, an artificial intelligence platform. They employ machine learning to analyze millions of photographs from social media and the web every day, assisting firms like as Louis Vuitton and Dior in anticipating trends and aligning production accordingly.

Similarly, two prominent trend predicting organizations, Edited and WGSN, employ AI to evaluate data from e-commerce sites, fashion shows, and social media, offering actionable ideas to companies throughout the world. For example, WGSN combines qualitative experience with quantitative research, relying on a diverse range of sources such as over 5 million runway photographs and 100,000 social media postings every month. This vast amount of data is converted into very accurate trend projections using our proprietary algorithms.

By embracing AI, the fashion industry is transitioning from a reactive to a proactive and predictive one, paving the way for a more sustainable and consumer-centric future.
Similarly, two prominent trend predicting organizations, Edited and WGSN, employ AI to evaluate data from e-commerce sites, fashion shows, and social media, offering actionable ideas to companies throughout the world. For example, WGSN combines qualitative experience with quantitative research, relying on a diverse range of sources such as over 5 million runway photographs and 100,000 social media postings every month. This vast amount of data is converted into very accurate trend projections using our proprietary algorithms.

Optimizing Supply Chains

The supply chain has been one of the most intricate and difficult areas of the fashion business. From procuring raw materials to managing inventories to ensuring efficient delivery, every step has the potential for inefficiency and waste. AI is currently being used to simplify and improve these processes, transforming how the fashion business runs.

AI systems can use previous data to precisely estimate demand, enabling for more effective inventory management. This can assist to reduce overproduction, which is a major concern in the fashion industry and contributes to environmental damage. Fashion firms may cut waste and become more sustainable by manufacturing to meet expected demand.

AI can also aid with supply chain logistics. For example, AI systems may track and analyze shipping data to ensure that things are delivered as efficiently as possible. This not only saves time, but also lowers the carbon impact, making the supply chain more sustainable. In summary, using AI algorithms in fashion retail guarantees that the correct goods are available at the right moment, reducing stockouts and markdowns while increasing profitability.

Li and Fung, a worldwide supply chain management, are an example of artificial intelligence in supply chain optimization. They created a digital supply chain platform that leverages AI to connect merchants with suppliers in real time, offering end-to-end insight and increasing supply chain efficiency and responsiveness.

Furthermore, businesses such as H&M use AI to evaluate shop receipts and returns, allowing them to alter the quantity of each clothing for each location. This type of data analysis minimizes the likelihood of having too much unsold stock, lowers expenses, and promotes sustainability.

AI also helps designers and manufacturers locate sustainable raw materials. Platforms like as SourceMap employ artificial intelligence to give companies with information on their supply chain, including the environmental effect of raw material selection.

Building on this digital change, 3DLOOK is changing how marketers understand and cater to their clients’ individual body shapes and sizes. Our system uses mobile body scanning and artificial intelligence to give precise body measurements and extensive body analytics. This data allows for a better understanding of their clients’ body proportions, providing significant insights for more efficient product development and customer-centric clothing designs. By matching garment specs to actual consumer data, marketers may significantly minimize the time and resources spent on sample manufacturing.

Furthermore, this technology generates 3D models based on the customer’s body data, giving them a detailed idea of how alternative styles and sizes would fit their own body types. This skill is especially useful in online purchasing, where it may dramatically minimize the number of returns owing to poor fit.

In essence, AI is becoming an essential tool for optimizing supply chains, lowering costs, increasing efficiency, and encouraging sustainability in the fashion sector. With its predictive and analytical powers, AI is the new foundation of contemporary supply chain management in the fashion industry.

Customizing the shopping experience.

In the age of e-commerce, customization has emerged as a significant tool for merchants, and AI is at the forefront of this transformation. AI is assisting fashion firms in customizing the shopping experience in previously inconceivable ways, making tailored suggestions based on individual consumer behavior, tastes, and purchasing history.

ASOS, an online fashion and beauty retailer, employs AI to personalize the shopping experience for each customer. Their AI-powered technology recommends apparel based on the customer’s prior purchases and browsing history, making the shopping experience more relevant and entertaining.

Thread.com, a UK-based firm, employs AI in conjunction with human stylists to deliver personalised style advise and outfit recommendations to its clients. Customers submit their preferences, sizes, and price ranges, and AI algorithms work with human stylists to create a unique shopping experience for each client.

Amazon, the e-commerce industry leader, employs artificial intelligence to provide product suggestions, assisting shoppers in discovering new things that match their style and needs. This customisation promotes consumer happiness and revenue since people are more inclined to buy things that are suited to their tastes.

3DLOOK is just another example of technological technology altering the fashion personalization market. We have created a novel way for gathering shopper body data, which improves the accuracy of tailored suggestions. The technology uses this bodily data to match the user’s measurements to the brand’s size guide and clothing information. The end result is a tailored size suggestion for each clothing, which boosts the customer’s trust in their purchase. Brands who use 3DLOOK’s YourFit solution may experience a 13-16% boost in conversion rates and a 20-25% rise in average order value.

Garderobo AI, for example, a provider of AI-powered styling services, provides a unique potential for fashion firms to improve their online shopping experience. Customers may easily find complimentary goods to complete their preferred appearances thanks to individualized product suggestions displayed in visually attractive forms such as “Total Look” collages and entertaining “Carousel” displays. Fashion businesses that use these creative solutions may expect to see significant gains in key performance measures such as average order values (AOVs), conversion rates, and overall consumer engagement.

In summary, by utilizing AI to adapt the purchasing process, companies improve the consumer experience, increase customer loyalty, and increase sales. In an increasingly competitive fashion industry, customization is no longer a luxury, but rather a requirement.

Fighting Fake Products

Two apps might help you avoid these embarrassing situations. Deloitte designed one of the tools that helps to avoid these unpleasant situations, with the goal of identifying design infringements. This technology, dubbed “Dupe Killer,” sifts through massive collections of photos to identify minute yet distinct design aspects such as an object’s outlines, certain colors, or even unique stitching patterns.

Other techniques use computer vision to validate real objects. This technology aids customs officers and others in the supply chain in detecting counterfeit goods.

Artificial intelligence is being used to authenticate objects, hence preventing the sale of counterfeit fashion products such as shoes and bags.

Virtual Try-Ons – The AI-Driven Solution in Fashion Retail

Virtual try-ons are transforming the customer experience in online buying by eliminating uncertainty about fit and size. Artificial intelligence has played an important role in allowing this transformation, with ground-breaking products like YourFit and Mobile Tailor paving the way.

YourFit is an innovative combination of AI and 3D technology that allows customers to see how items fit on their body. Customers just submit two images of themselves, and YourFit creates an accurate 3D model, allowing them to digitally “try on” apparel options. It’s like to having a tailored fitting room on your screen, which makes online buying more enjoyable and effective.

Mobile Tailor improves the online purchasing experience even further. Mobile Tailor, described as a cutting-edge human body measuring solution, uses artificial intelligence to rapidly build an exact 3D model as well as over 80 precise measures from two images taken with any smartphone camera.

Mobile Tailor increases the online purchase experience even further. Mobile Tailor, billed as a cutting-edge human body measurement solution, use artificial intelligence to quickly generate a perfect 3D model as well as over 80 precise measurements from two photographs captured with any smartphone camera.

AI-powered Recommendations

Ever noticed how internet retailers seem to anticipate your needs? That is the wonder of artificial intelligence. AI-powered recommendation systems evaluate client data to suggest goods that match their style and interests. For example, take the upscale company Zegna. They have taken AI-powered suggestions to the next level by recommending items and outfits to their high-end customers.

To do this, Zegna has wonderfully blended its retail workers’ experience with an AI-powered suggestion engine known as Zegna X Configurator. This innovative technology contains a 3D configurator that can generate a stunning 49 billion possible outfit combinations! It’s like having your own high-fashion stylist with an unlimited number of alternatives. These individualized ideas are part of Zegna X, an outreach app that began as a test initiative in the United States in 2021 before being launched globally.

What was the result? A more pleasurable shopping experience that takes into consideration your own style and preferences. And for merchants, it means a big increase in sales. It’s an incredible illustration of how AI is redefining the buying experience, making it more customized and engaging. As you buy more, the algorithm learns more about you, which improves its suggestions and your shopping experience.

3DLOOK uses a thorough, data-intensive technique to provide extremely precise sizing and fit suggestions. We begin by gathering brand-specific fit standard data, which includes core body measurements from fit forms, avatars, and live models, as well as unique grading guidelines. This gives a thorough grasp of the brand’s specific sizing and fit requirements. Simultaneously, we examine season or collection-specific tech packs to acquire information into each garment’s fit purpose. Our size suggestion algorithms use this data in conjunction with AI-powered mobile body scanning technology to link brand-specific garment data to the customer’s own body data and fit preferences. The end result is a personalized size recommendation for each clothing, which improves the customer’s shopping experience by ensuring a proper fit.

AI in Fashion Marketing

Artificial intelligence is causing a paradigm change in fashion marketing, allowing for previously inconceivable levels of customisation and efficiency. Here are a few examples that demonstrate the transformational impact of AI in fashion marketing:

Personalized Marketing:

AI may use client data such as prior purchases, browser history, and social media activity to generate highly focused marketing efforts. These individualized recommendations improve consumer engagement and sales.

Predictive Analysis:

AI can forecast future customer behavior based on prior data. This enables firms to anticipate client demands and offer their products accordingly, therefore increasing sales and customer happiness.

Automated Ad Buying:

AI can handle programmatic advertising, which involves purchasing ad space in real time, targeting particular client categories, and optimizing ad expenditure. Fashion businesses that use AI for marketing campaigns may increase engagement, conversions, and brand loyalty while maximizing ROI. Fashion businesses that use AI for marketing campaigns may increase engagement, conversions, and brand loyalty while maximizing ROI.

Chatbots:

AI-powered chatbots may interact with customers, answering questions and making tailored suggestions, so improving the buying experience and engagement.

Now let’s look at some real-world instances. Tommy Hilfiger, in partnership with IBM and the Fashion Institute of Technology, employed AI to assess a variety of fashion data, which was then used to build new collections and launch highly targeted marketing campaigns.

Stitch Fix, an online styling business, employs artificial intelligence to personalize their marketing to specific customers’ tastes. Their AI systems evaluate client comments and preferences to provide highly tailored outfit recommendations, which increases customer engagement and purchases.

In essence, these examples demonstrate how AI is revolutionizing fashion marketing by giving firms a tremendous tool for engaging with their customers in a tailored, efficient, and compelling way.

ChatGPT in Fashion

ChatGPT and other AI models have the potential to transform the fashion business. With their excellent natural language processing capabilities, they can provide several benefits to both fashion shops and customers.

Consider an AI-powered stylist who is accessible 24 hours a day, seven days a week to assist consumers in finding the right outfit, answering size and fit issues, providing style advice, and even recommending trendy fashion goods. That is precisely what ChatGPT can achieve. By integrating ChatGPT into e-commerce platforms, firms can deliver tailored, real-time support to customers, improving their shopping experience.

Furthermore, ChatGPT may be used to evaluate consumer comments and reviews, giving companies important information. Understanding what customers say about their goods may help firms enhance their offers and adapt to emerging trends faster.

ChatGPT may also be utilized to generate compelling content for fashion businesses, such as product descriptions and blog pieces on the newest fashion trends. Its capacity to create human-like writing may be a useful tool for businesses trying to engage with their target audience and sell their products.

In summary, ChatGPT’s capabilities can allow for a more customized, efficient, and engaging buying experience in the fashion business, adapting to the changing demands of the modern client.

Ethical Considerations on the Use of AI in the Fashion Industry

As AI becomes more incorporated into the fashion business, retailers must address ethical issues such as data protection and algorithmic prejudice carefully. Companies must evaluate how to properly combine the benefits of efficiency and innovation with the fair use of consumers’ data, given that they are becoming more aware and active about their privacy rights.

Transparency and accountability should be the top priority for artificial intelligence in fashion retail, ensuring that these technologies help both customers and businesses while limiting possible dangers and unexpected effects, such as data breaches that expose users’ biometric information.

Final Thoughts:
As we see the increasing cooperation between AI and the fashion industry, it is clear that the possibilities are endless. Artificial intelligence fashion is more than simply a passing fad; it marks the beginning of a new age in which AI enables firms to precisely forecast trends, improve supply chains, personalize shopping experiences, and deliver AI-powered suggestions. AI in fashion is set to transform the business, promoting efficiency, sustainability, and creativity.

While the change is still in its early stages, artificial intelligence has enormous promise in the fashion sector. It envisions a future in which the fashion industry prioritizes sustainability, consumer satisfaction, and operational efficiency. AI in fashion demonstrates how technology can enable considerable innovation and growth while also supporting sustainability and customer-centricity. (Christou, 2024)

Read more at: Jass Insights

Citation & Reference:

Christou, L. (2024) Artificial intelligence in fashion: Reshaping the entire industry.