As the fashion and textile industry grapples with a post-pandemic shift in consumer and purchasing practices, the advancement of AI in the fashion sector is increasingly being leveraged by the industry to tackle new commercial challenges and dynamics, Dolores Figueroa reports in Escudogitial.
While the use of AI in the fashion sector is estimated to exceed $4.4 billion in 2027, the sector is seeking to understand the scope of this new technology that goes beyond advertising to consumer demand forecasting, stockpile optimization as well as customer experience.
One significant collaboration in this area is between NTT DATA, a global IT services provider with Google Cloud solutions, in which they publish a report “Artificial Intelligence reinvents the Fashion Sector.” This partnership aims to boost the growth of the fashion sector through AI with specific tools and solutions that enhance commercial practices, limit costs and offer a positive impact on return on investment (ROI). Those AI tools allow retailers to predict customer desires and demands, which may in turn optimise supply chains and create a unique brand experience – either online or in the physical store.
AI solutions offer a number of benefits to the fashion industry including:
– Improvements in market knowledge: allowing the identification of trends, preferences and the analysis of competitors.
– Channel optimisation: Within physical stores, AI is able to monitor store traffic and relative shopping behaviours to understand which products and zones are most interesting, have the highest conversion rate and ultimately optimise future outflow of stock and sales. In digital channels, the AI tools can analyse written searches to adapt promotions to the profile of the customer, while optimising characteristics of a virtual personal assistant/shopper.
– Improvement of supply chain: As retailers manage and juggle physical stores, online stores and wholesalers, AI can optimise demand forecasting, pricing and inventory management with intelligent stock control and replenishment solutions.
– Improving competitiveness: As data is constantly being generated with each operation, the application of AI can optimise the flow of information and costs to improve productivity and visibility across the entire business.
– Optimization of human-machine collaboration: AI technology can also leverage “human capital” through a collaborative model that enhances the offering of physical channel personnel that aligns with customer needs. This might include assigning greater responsibility, creativity and sensitivity to personnel from both the operational point of view and the end customer.