Generative AI in the Fashion Industry: Are you Embracing it?
Written by Yoo-Won Olivia Min & B. Ellie Jin
In the ever-evolving world of fashion, artificial intelligence (AI) has emerged as a revolutionary force with the potential to transform the industry in unprecedented ways. AI, in simple terms, refers to technology, often in the form of computer programs, designed to replicate the human brain’s ability to perform tasks and continuously improve. Within the realm of AI technology, Generative AI, powered by deep learning algorithms, has begun to create a significant impact on fashion brands. This advanced technology has the capacity to comprehend patterns within data and generate entirely new examples, spanning text, imagery, and even video. What was once considered a uniquely human trait is now within the realm of AI’s capabilities (Bain, 2023).
Generative AI holds immense potential for enriching the fashion industry in various aspects, including design, product descriptions, digital fashion assistants, product recommendations, advertising campaigns, runway imagery, 3D design, and blended photoshoots (Mcdowell, 2023a). Table 1 summarizes how generative AI is applied in the fashion industry.
Table 1. Applications of Generative AI in the Fashion Industry
| Category | How it works | Examples |
| Fashion Design | • Transform textual descriptions or uploaded images into illustrations • Adjust these designs before production | • Cala’s tool with DALL-E technology • Tommy Hilfiger’s AI-Assisted Design Collaboration with IBM and FIT • Project Muze by Google & Zalando |
| Visual Content and Marketing Imagery | • Generate various ad add marketing content by using given parameters or inputs • Text, images, and videos are common outputs. | • Stitch Fix’s AI visuals• Casablanca’s Spring/Summer 2023 campaign • Revolve’s AI-driven ad- campaign |
| Copywriting | • Generate copy based on user-input keywords and instructions • Streamline the process of creating product descriptions, marketing emails, and other written content | • Adore Me’s AI optimization • Product descriptions for SEO (Search Engine Optimization) |
| Shopping Assistants | • Utilize natural language processing to interact with customers as chatbots • Offer product recommendations and provide information | • Kering’s experimental KNXT platform • Luxury personal shopper powered by ChatGPT |
AI in Design: Pioneering New Avenues in Fashion Creation
Generative AI has the power to revolutionize fashion design. Designers can harness AI image generators like DALL-E, Midjourney, or Stable Diffusion to bring their creative visions to life. For instance, in January 2023, Cala, a supply chain startup, introduced a groundbreaking tool leveraging DALL-E technology. CALA is the first group to harness AI in powering the creation process. This innovative tool allows users to describe their design ideas in text or upload images, after which the AI transforms these inputs into illustrations or realistic images. Users can then fine-tune these designs before turning them into physical products. This marks a pioneering use of the DALL-E API in the fashion industry, enabling the creation of clothing, accessories, shoes, and lifestyle products based on descriptions or images (OpenAI, 2022). Also, in collaboration with IBM and the Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT), Tommy Hilfiger delved into the potential of AI in fashion design through a project named Reimagine Retail. This initiative aimed to give retailers a competitive advantage in speed and to forecast emerging design trends by analyzing a vast array of data from images and fabrics to colors (Saunders, 2019).
Generative AI empowers designers to explore new concepts and ideas rapidly by generating various design variations. However, it’s important to note that manual editing and adjustments are often necessary as AI cannot turn all concepts into finished products. Additionally, concerns regarding intellectual property may arise as some AI-generated designs could be based on copyrighted work. Legal issues in this area are still evolving, prompting brands to involve their legal teams and establish guidelines (Bain, 2023).
AI in Copywriting: Efficiency and Personalization
Generative AI tools are serving as valuable assistants to copywriters streamlining the writing process for tasks such as crafting product descriptions and marketing emails. Users input keywords and instructions, and AI generates copy that can be edited as needed, enabling brands to produce written content more efficiently. For instance, the lingerie brand Adore Me has been using AI tools to optimize product descriptions for SEO (Search Engine Optimization), ensuring they are more likely to appear at the top of search engine results (Mcdowell, 2023a). This not only enhances visibility but also saves brands significant amounts of time, more than 30 hours in some cases. Additionally, AI has the potential to personalize content at a one-to-one level. However, this can be challenging for businesses lacking structured first-party data and robust data privacy measures are crucial (Bain, 2023). It’s worth noting that for now, human oversight is still required, and incorporating AI may necessitate adjustments to established workflows.
AI-Enhanced Visual Content: Shaping the Future of Fashion Marketing Imagery
Generative AI is also applied to create visual content. AI’s capabilities lend themselves to a wide variety of content types including images and videos. This versatility helps businesses and professionals generate more diverse and captivating content, appealing to a broader audience. Stitch Fix employs AI to curate personalized clothing recommendations for customers and is now exploring DALL-E 2 to visualize garments tailored to individual preferences for color, fabric, and style (Davenport & Mittal, 2022). Furthermore, for its Spring/Summer 2023 campaign titled ‘Futuro Optimisto,’ the Parisian fashion house Casablanca Paris collaborated with the British photographer and AI artist Luke Nugent. The team vividly brings fictional characters to life, set against dreamlike backdrops, seamlessly blending the splendors of nature with cutting-edge technology. Using AI, images were crafted to depict optimism and faith, where the tangible and imagined realms unite to showcase idealistic visions of communities. Fashion brands can benefit from reduced production times, cost savings, and increased creative freedom thanks to these AI-driven innovations. However, ensuring that AI-generated images accurately represent products can be tricky, as the output may differ from the original product photos (Bain, 2023; Mcdowell, 2023a).
AI Chatbots: Transforming the Fashion Shopping Experience
Generative AI can enhance the shopping and customer service experience by acting as online shopping assistants, commonly known as chatbots. These chatbots utilize natural language processing to understand and respond to customer inquiries, helping them discover products, offering personalized recommendations, and facilitating interaction between customers and brands (Zeng et al., 2023). For instance, within Kering’s experimental KNXT platform, a luxury personal shopper powered by ChatGPT provides tailored recommendations and insights to users based on specific contexts (Mcdowell, 2023b). Despite these advantages, chatbot technology still has room for improvement. It may struggle to suggest satisfactory products due to inventory constraints or provide somewhat generic styling suggestions. However, it’s important to note that these chatbots are a work in progress, and companies are confident that their language capabilities will continue to improve as they gather more data and user feedback. As the fashion industry evolves, generative AI-driven chatbots have the potential to revolutionize the way customers interact with brands, offering increasingly personalized and efficient services.
Conclusion
The above shows the use of generative AI in the fashion industry encompasses product design, product descriptions, copywriting, advertising campaigns, digital fashion assistants, and product recommendations. It enhances productivity by reducing time and allowing greater creativity and versatility (Jin & Shin, 2021). While there is some room for improvement and concerns for data privacy, copyright issues, etc., AI will evolve and allow expansive applications with greater accuracy and sophistication.
Now is a pivotal moment for businesses to introspect and delineate their organizational stance on AI. It’s imperative to not only envision the future trajectory with AI but also to establish clear, strategic objectives aligned with its integration. Equally crucial is the task of understanding and assimilating the sentiments of your primary consumer demographic, ensuring that your AI initiatives resonate with their expectations and preferences. It is apparent that the ways we do fashion business is becoming inextricably linked with AI technology. The question remains: Has your firm started embracing AI? How? The use of AI is not an option but a necessity to stay relevant.
References
Bain, M. (2023, June). The complete playbook for generative AI in fashion. The Business of Fashion. file:///C:/Users/Min/Downloads/Generative%20AI%20in%20fashion%20June%202023%20BoF.pdf
CALA. (n.d.). CALA. https://ca.la/
Davenport, T.H., & Mittal N. (2022, November 14). How Generative AI Is Changing Creative Work. https://hbr.org/2022/11/how-generative-ai-is-changing-creative-work
Jin, B., & Shin, D. (2021). The power of the 4th Industrial Revolution in the fashion industry: What, why and how has the industry changed? Fashion & Textiles, 8(31)
Mcdowell, M. (2023a, June 9). Gallery: Generative AI in fashion and beauty. Vogue Business. https://www.voguebusiness.com/gallery/gallery-generative-ai-in-fashion-and-beauty
Mcdowell, M. (2023b, April 25). With generative AI, luxury hopes to finally crack digital clienteling. Vogue Business. https://www.voguebusiness.com/technology/with-generative-ai-luxury-hopes-to-finally-crack-digital-clienteling
OpenAI, (2022, November). DALL-E API Now Available in Public Beta. https://openai.com/blog/dall-e-api-now-available-in-public-beta
Saunders K. (2019, April 23). IBM and FIT Announce Collaboration to Help Build the Creative Fashion Workforce of the Future. IBM. https://newsroom.ibm.com/2019-04-23-IBM-and-FIT-Announce-Collaboration-to-Help-Build-the-Creative-Fashion-Workforce-of-the-Future
Zeng, N., Vignali, G., & Ryding, D. (2023). Understanding the Application of AI-enabled Chatbots in Luxury Fashion Retailing. In The Garment Economy: Understanding History, Developing Business Models, and Leveraging Digital Technologies (pp. 369-388). Springer.