How Artificial Intelligence is Shaping the Future of Fashion
By: Frankie Smith
Artificial intelligence (AI) has infiltrated almost every aspect of the modern world. When we think of AI, our thoughts immediately filter into monumental inventions: self-driving cars, the Snapchat AI friend, human-like robots, or ChatGPT. However, the mechanisms of AI are hidden all around us. From chatbots on company websites to personalized health data given by iPhones, to even spell check, we unknowingly use artificial intelligence every day. How has it impacted the fashion industry?
Fashion is built on creativity. However, artificial intelligence is a different type of creativity, a more modern form. It takes a unique approach to data, feature design, and innovation. Developers in AI must consider ethical implications as well as solve contemporary problems with original solutions. On the contrary, fashion is more or less a historical creativity. Designers constantly build upon old patterns, silhouettes, and trends, adding a creative and fresh twist or developing something completely new.
Yet, if the fashion industry fails to adapt to changing technology, it could fade away. Benefits within sales, marketing, analytics, and advertising strategies would not be maximized. Clothing design itself would slow down and trends would not be perpetuated, nevertheless kept up by an audience. Therefore, many companies have been forced to or have electively incorporated artificial intelligence. Between automatically generating design ideas, marketing, virtual try-ons, trend analysis, and automation in production, AI has infiltrated almost every aspect of the fashion industry.
Generative Design and Creativity
As many independent and corporate designers utilize computers to create new designs, or “generative design,” artificial intelligence may explain the fast-paced nature of fashion trends. Artificial intelligence programs can now generate stylistic designs and imitate fashion sketches. According to McKinsey & Company, the oldest and largest of the “Big Three” management consultancies, who work to help business maximize efficiency and solve problems, “Creative directors and their teams could input sketches and desired details—such as fabrics, color palettes, and patterns—into a platform powered by generative AI that automatically creates an array of designs, thus allowing designers to play with an enormous variety of styles and looks.” Then, they may choose to replicate the AI-generated style exactly or add their own signature twist. Moreover, AI can be used to create specialized designs for things like eyeglasses using facial recognition to adjust for a customer’s aesthetic preferences.
Upon research, there are hundreds of fashion-focused AI generators that are utilized by both up-and-coming and seasoned creators. For example, Unite AI, a company dedicated to releasing news, interviews, and access to AI tools, compiled a list of the “10 Best AI Fashion Designer Tools.” Platforms such as The New Black, Ablo, and Visual Hound offer design creation, advanced sketch capabilities, and photo enhancement services. This aids creatives and stylists in making a product line while maintaining innovative design. Specifically, The New Black aims to maintain personal expression and originality, offering an unprecedented range of customization. However, some may argue that this interrupts the natural creative process. Additionally, there is worry that AI will give similar responses to a wide range of brands, causing an identifiable pervasiveness in fashion.
Trend Analysis and Prediction
Rather than real people analyzing runway shows, past fashion trend waves, and studying pop culture, AI can now be used to predict upcoming trends. Forbes notes that “Today, AI tools analyze diverse datasets, like runway images, search and sales data, and social media posts, enabling quicker and more precise trend identification.”
The company Heuritech combines fashion with AI by gathering data to help companies predict future trends. Their technology and algorithms analyze real-world images from social media. Not only do they aim to give companies a competitive advantage, but also produce more sustainably and remain financially secure.
Marketing, Advertising, and Recommendation Systems
Now more than ever, AI can personally and precisely tailor advertisements to individuals. This can be seen on both general internet and brand-specific levels. First, let's talk about algorithms. Ever wondered how Instagram gives you such specific and personalized advertisements? That is powered by AI. In order to curate targeted advertisements for each user, Instagram continually collects data whilst in use. These ads come from a combination of past liked posts, search history, followed hashtags, and other content that a user interacts with. In an effort of transparency, Meta, previously known as Facebook, released an article on “How AI Influences What You See on Facebook and Instagram,” which details exactly how those apps are curating user’s feeds.
Moreover, AI has a role in the emergence of recommendation systems used by various online shopping platforms. For example, virtual styling website Stitch Fix uses AI to craft personalized style recommendations and boxes for its clients. However, their main algorithm focuses on the “probability of a sale.” This is done through a continuous stream of customer feedback on their personalized “fix” box and a questionnaire called a “style shuffle” where clients give their quick responses to a series of clothing items. Many notable magazines, such as Forbes, have denoted Stitch Fix as a first-of-its-kind and revolutionary when it comes to using AI in styling.
Virtual Try-on
Not only is AI beneficial to designers and manufacturers, but it is also becoming increasingly useful for consumers. For example, Amazon recently announced the launch of a new artificial intelligence “fit insight” tool. Integrated into Amazon Fashion, the company wants to relieve uncertainty when it comes to sizing, help shoppers estimate their fit, and ultimately reduce the financial and sustainable hit that returns have on the retailer and environment. Amazon states that the tool, “considers the sizing relationships between brands and their size systems, a product’s reviews and other details, and a customer’s own fit preferences.”
As mentioned above, this new AI sizing tool is relieving the impact of returns on brands and retailers. Due to size uncertainty, buyers have resorted to what Vogue coins as “bracketing”--ordering multiple sizes of one item to try on and return the rest. This is financially detrimental for retailers, as it “erodes margins and profitability.” Moreover, the new size recommendation feature is also benefiting Amazon, as studies show that customers are more likely to purchase and keep an item when a size is recommended for them.
Another recent fashion innovation is Google’s AI shopping feature which allows customers to see clothes on a wide range of models in hopes of providing a better understanding of size and fit. Google explains, “Here’s how it works: Our new generative AI model can take just one clothing image and accurately reflect how it would drape, fold, cling, stretch, and form wrinkles and shadows on a diverse set of real models in various poses. We selected people ranging in sizes XXS-4XL representing different skin tones (using the Monk Skin Tone Scale as a guide), body shapes, ethnicities and hair types.”
Automated Production and Manufacturing
In conjunction with generative design, AI offers organizational tools and pre-production visualization techniques. These features may aid in production, specifically protecting creators from design failures. AI-generated product images can help creators refine their designs before the piece is manufactured. Financially, designers are saved from investing in physical prototyping, which only allows a larger budget for other design lines. The organizational features allow designers to visualize collections, ensuring cohesiveness.
Additionally, AI can aid in supply chain management by monitoring inventory, stock, and production numbers. To benefit suppliers even more, artificial technology can predict future sales. All of this combined can help companies maximize profits and reduce textile waste.
Artificial Intelligence is also being used to automate production lines, creating safer working conditions for employees. According to AI Multiple, “...robotics can help automate risky or error-prone tasks in a manufacturing facility to decrease workload and improve worker safety.” These machines are gaining the ability to pick the correct fabrics for specific garments and keep track of how much material is being used in order to maintain sustainable standards. Companies such as SoftWear Automation have created innovative “Sewbots” that have the ability to make an entire T-shirt without human interference. This is unprecedented, as most robotics can simply cut, pick out, or pass along materials.
Conclusion
Whether or not brands choose to keep up with these fast-paced changes can greatly influence their longevity and relevancy. With the rapidly evolving technological advancements, companies will eventually find it advantageous to incorporate AI technology. Doing so is almost proven to maximize profits, maintain sustainability, and ensure customer satisfaction. In embracing AI as the future of fashion, brands secure not just their place in the industry, but also pave the way for innovation, profitability, and lasting relevance in such a dynamic landscape.