Why AI In The Fashion Industry Is More Relevant Than Ever

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Jun 13

Why AI In The Fashion Industry Is More Relevant Than Ever

By Kamal Jacob

A quick Instagram search on the word #fashion brings up millions of results. And Instagram is just the tip of the iceberg. The fashion sector with its ever-changing trends and evolving market insights produces some of the biggest data sets in businesses. It would be nearly impossible even for thousands of dedicated employees put together to weave out meaningful trends from such an onslaught of data. And this is where Artificial Intelligence comes into the picture.

Artificial Intelligence or AI refers to advance computer systems and algorithms that can learn on its own and perform tasks which were once reserved only for humans. Apart from increased processing power and the latest innovation in the world of AI, a major factor that helps AI make smarter decisions is data, which is way larger and more diverse than ever before.

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According to industry experts, fashion brands that embrace AI are more agile and better equipped to deal with the cutthroat competition in the fashion industry. The fashion industry is one of the fastest changing industry and it is almost impossible to manually monitor everything that is going on.

AI deals with emulating human minds and its reasoning. In AI implementation, machines are trained to use the algorithms in a manner that can discover patterns and generate insights. These insights can make predictions and help in futuristic decision making based on the data already out there.

A large number of fashion brands are already using artificial intelligence to improve search predictability and enhance predictions. They use training algorithms to predict shopper’s behaviour based on its understanding of a large set of data. AI also plays a key role in ensuring that there are always enough stocks of in-demand items. AI-powered tools for demand forecasting are way more accurate as compared to human predictions of demand with respect to sales of particular items. In best cases, they have even helped retailers reduce forecast errors by 50 percent.

AI Is Not A Replacement But An Augmentation To Human Thinking

A lot of fashion ‘gurus’ are uncomfortable with the idea of using AI in an industry based on creativity and imagination. In reality, AI is not here to replace creativity but it is a beautiful amalgamation of creativity with digital innovation that can present fashion houses with powerful competitive edge.

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Image source - https://vuhes.com/retail-technology-trends-landed-in-the-luxury-fashion-industry/

Where most people go wrong is when they think that AI scientists are trying to replace human designers. What they need to understand is that the application of AI is more varied and different than that. It can help augment the human thinking process by taking over mundane tasks that can be automated. This will relive the designer, merchants and marketers leaving them with time and energy to focus on value-making tasks.

AI has the potential to bring improvements in different sectors of fashion such as forecasting, capacity planning and merchandising, production automation, and delivery. It is not about if AI can be the next fashion designer. It is about what all aspects of the fashion industry can be augmented with AI leaving fashion experts to do more creative work. And smart AI technologies applied in the fashion sector will result in greater speed, increased flexibility and lowered cost.

Shoppers Today Look For A Personalized Shopping Experience

Easy online availability of products has changed people’s wants and expectations during shopping. Shoppers are increasingly looking for personalized experiences that can cater to them on an individual basis. Traditional marketing approaches do not have the scale or ability to cater to the individual at that scale. Technologies like artificial intelligence and machine learning are highly advanced and are capable of reacting fast enough to serve individual shoppers in real time

Examples Of Fashion Leaders Employing AI In Their Operations

Many fashion leaders are already using AI to improve their product development process. It allows companies to scan through lofts of customer data to understand, in rich details, which features customers are looking for in the products.

Amazon’s AI Powered Clothing Designer

For example, let us consider the case of Amazon. The e-commerce giant is working on developing a powerful algorithm that will analyze millions of images to replicate the popular style. Through the first-ever first clothing designer powered by AI, Amazon will use AI to analyze customer’s past buying records and clothes preferences to develop new designs that will appeal to them

Image source - https://qz.com/1062257/amazons-new-ai-algorithm-designs-clothes-without-human-designers/

Fluid XPS By VF Corporation

In December 2015, VF corporation’s brand – The North Face launched an AI assistant named Fluid Expert Personal Shopper (XPS). The aim of the assistant was to improve the shopping experience for the customers visiting their e-commerce site.

Fluid XPS was aimed at reducing the number of navigations required for an online customer to reach to the product they are searching for. XPS followed an interactive, dialogue-based approach for the same. It used IBM’s Watson’s technology which has the capability to evaluate and understand natural human language. It would act as your personal in-store sales assistant who offers your personal recommendations based on what you have chosen so far or what you are looking for.

Here is how the interface of Fluid XPS looked like -

Image Source - https://www.enterprisetimes.co.uk/2015/12/15/north-face-launches-ibm-fluid-xps/

While most of the latest e-commerce companies are using recommendation engines on their websites, the added personal touch has a great potential to increase engagement and bring in more sales. Report from the pilot launch of Fluid XPS showed that there was 60% click-through rate to try product recommendations and as high as 80 % users were satisfied with the products recommended and would love to use the assistant again.

Post the launch of the assistant, it was reported that The North Face was the corporation’s highest grossing division bringing in $7.53 billion in revenue in 2016.

Macy’s On Call

The apparel retail Macy’s announced the launch of an AI-powered, in-store shopping assistant named as Macy’s On Call pilot in July 2016. It allows the customer to input questions in a mobile browser regarding a store’s inventory, products and facilities and receives customized responses. In the first phase, the tool was accessible to mobile devices at 10 pilot locations across The USA. Similar to Fluid XPS, even this tool used IBM Watson technology integrated with a VA platform called Satisfi in order to improve the customer in-store shopping experience.

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Macy’s On Call in-store shopping assistant was able to receive questions asked in natural language and provide responses to them. It could answer inquiries regarding the unique services of a store as well as the location of a product. For example, a customer can input question such as ‘Where can I find toddler’s dress?’ or a question regarding a particular brand and the AI-based shopping assistant will give a customized response regarding the location of that product in the store. If users are searching for a specific item, they may also input that query in the mobile browser to find out about the product’s availability and its location in the store.

Given the layout of each store was different, the system was customizable to store data as per the store. In addition, the system was capable of learning about customer’s interest and device a popular search category based on how many times questions regarding a particular product has been asked. This data is also used to change the store’s layout to keep the popular category product’s in easy access to increase sales.

Conclusion

With so many proven use cases, fashion business should start focusing on the potential of AI to add value to their business. Researches suggest that in addition to improving customer’s experience, AI could reduce the workload on fashion designers by as much as 30 percent, which is significant.

AI has just started making its way in the fashion industry and most of the AI solutions currently being explored are still in their infancy. However, these solutions are only going to get better with time. AI is a disruptive technology that offers new possibilities throughout the fashion industry. And it is here to stay and grow.

And that’s a wrap! Hope this blog post proves to be insightful for you! Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments section! Also, if you look forward to learning Artificial Intelligence or upskill your AI skills, feel free to check out our Artificial Intelligence Courses here. Manipal Prolearn Data Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning courses equip you with sound knowledge of the subject and their importance by covering all the essential concepts in the domains. Given that AI is gaining huge popularity, this course can be a stepping stone towards a successful career in the field.