AI Technology and the Fashion Industry

Fashion is a vast global industry. From the runway to the marketplace, from haute couture to fast fashion, and everything in-between, the industry is ever-expanding. And where there is expanding business, advancing technology is leading the way. Major tech companies develop innovative products to help enterprises to remain competitive. The hot topic now is AI.

Technology has gone beyond streamlining processes, boosting efficiency, and ensuring accuracy. Today’s technology has introduced Artificial Intelligence (AI) to help business leaders in many industries make strategic business decisions and resolve issues.

According to a recent survey by Capgemini, AI can improve efficiency in processes and operations, thus helping retailers save USD 340 billion each year.  And AI can do more for fashion. It can help predict fashion and buying trends. Fashion brands can use AI to turn historical user-based data into actionable insights for the future. Insights gathered and interpreted by AI can inform every aspect of the design, production, and distribution process.

Using AI technology with ML, Deep Learning, NLP, data analytics, etc., has proven to contribute to waste management and sustainability.

As the fashion industry relies on consumer and market insight for survival and growth, AI assistance programs have found a place among brands. They lend a helping hand in making smarter strategic decisions, specifically around product development and prospective business lines. Artificial Intelligence can play a significant role in the fashion industry in several ways:

• Fueling brand creativity and productivity

AI can inform trends among brands and customers alike. By evaluating collected data, AI allows brands to analyze their previous sales metrics and identify design success. Knowing what sells can help businesses avoid design errors in future collections. AI can also mitigate the duplication of design plagiarism by scanning through hundreds of images and references.

• Linking brand ideology with customer expectations

Insight into customer preferences and fashion trends helps brands focus their product development. Fast fashion brands aim to make trending designs affordable to all. AI technology contributes to that goal by analyzing and identifying styles for replication.

• Focusing on sustainability 

The fashion industry has come under fire for misusing and wasting resources. AI used in the supply chain helps designers and manufacturers mitigate waste. Better informed forecasting, merchandising, capacity planning, production, and delivery can conserve resources, lower costs, and improve production speed.

How the fashion industry uses AI

Retail

In the retail setting, both in-store and online, AI and Machine Learning are used to track buyers’ shopping activity and preferences. Retailers can gather data regarding sales, contacts, comments, and feedback. Websites can identify which pages were viewed and revisited. Retailers can analyze the data and feedback to see where they can improve. Then they can more closely align their offerings with customer preferences.

Supply chain

Fast fashion needs to reach retailers as quickly as possible. As local and international supply houses scaled down during the recent pandemic, fashion brands needed alternate sources. With language processing (NLP), AI allowed brands to locate raw material vendors and distributors and avoid supply and delivery interruptions.

Manufacturing

Two critical factors in fashion manufacturing are quality checks (QC) and sales predictions. With AI technology, textile manufacturers can improve the efficiency of such processes as quality assurance, inventory management, logistics, etc. New technology can also identify counterfeit products that would negatively impact the business’s sales and revenue.

Artificial intelligence is undeniably helpful for the fashion industry. But brands must coordinate the technology with their specific business strategy to get the most benefit. Although some research suggests AI can replace 30% of work performed by fashion designers, it is unlikely that AI can replace designers or human intervention. The fashion industry must collectively understand that technology will enhance processes rather than replace the workforce or human creativity.

Today’s forward-focused retail and consumer goods companies are exploring ways that emerging technology can help them remain competitive and profitable. If you’d like to know more about AI and how it can benefit your organization, contact our experts at Korcomptenz.

By Korcomptenz, www.korcomptenz.com

The post AI Technology and the Fashion Industry  appeared first on ERP Software Blog.