Augment robotic automation for warehouse operations and inventory management through real-time analytics (for example, insights enabled by augmented reality, or AR).

Support negotiations with suppliers by compiling research.

Customize products for individual consumers at scale (for example, eyeglasses based on facial topography).

Enrich product ideation by collaborating with AI agents that generate creative options (for example, new ideas, variations) from data (for example, past product lines, inspirational imagery and style).

Convert sketches, mood boards, and descriptions into high-fidelity designs (for example, 3-D models of furniture and jewelry).

Understanding the use casesįoundation models and generative AI can be used across the fashion value chain. It also means creating systems to serve customers better. That means giving fashion professionals and creatives the technological tools to do certain tasks dramatically faster, freeing them up to spend more of their time doing things that only humans can do. In our view, generative AI is not just automation-it’s about augmentation and acceleration. In this article, we outline some of the most promising use cases and offer steps executives can take to get started, as well as risks to keep in mind when doing so. (Many of these use cases also apply to the adjacent beauty and luxury sectors.) Within product innovation, marketing, and sales and customer experience in particular, the technology can have significant outcomes and may be more feasible to implement in the short term compared with other areas in the fashion value chain. These are still early days, but some clear use cases for generative AI in fashion have already emerged.

It can input all forms of “unstructured” data-raw text, images, and video-and output new forms of media, ranging from fully-written scripts to 3-D designs and realistic virtual models for video campaigns. In the next three to five years, generative AI could add $150 billion, conservatively, and up to $275 billion to the apparel, fashion, and luxury sectors’ operating profits, according to McKinsey analysis. From codesigning to speeding content development processes, generative AI creates new space for creativity. True, this nascent technology became broadly available only recently and is still rife with worrisome kinks and bugs, but all indications are that it could improve at lightning speed and become a game changer in many aspects of business. While the fashion industry has experimented with basic AI and other frontier technologies-the metaverse, nonfungible tokens (NFTs), digital IDs, and augmented or virtual reality come to mind-it has so far had little experience with generative AI. and “ Generative AI is here: How tools like ChatGPT could change your business.” 2 Michael Chui, Roger Roberts, and Lareina Yee, “ Generative AI is here: How tools like ChatGPT could change your business,” McKinsey, December 20, 2022.)

(For more on generative AI and machine learning, see “ What is generative AI?” 1 “ What is generative AI?” McKinsey, January 19, 2023. Rather than simply identifying and classifying information, generative AI creates new information by leveraging foundation models, which are deep learning models that can handle multiple complex tasks at the same time. ChatGPT is only one consumer-friendly example of generative AI, a technology comprising algorithms that can be used to create new content, including audio, code, images, text, simulations, and videos. In the future, it’s entirely possible that those designs will blend the prowess of a creative director with the power of generative artificial intelligence (AI), helping to bring clothes and accessories to market faster, selling them more efficiently, and improving the customer experience.īy now, you’ve likely heard of OpenAI’s ChatGPT, the AI chatbot that became an overnight sensation and sparked a digital race to build and release competitors. As this season’s fashion weeks wrap up in London, Milan, New York, and Paris, brands are working to produce and sell the designs they’ve just showcased on runways-and they’re starting next season’s collections.

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