DIGITAL LIFE
Artificial intelligence is increasingly becoming part of the strategy of companies and the production chain in various sectors, including fashion, transforming everything from the creative process to customer relationships.
Researcher and businesswoman Olivia Merquior talks about the use of artificial intelligence tools to handle thousands of data points and help companies make business decisions
-How are fashion brands already using artificial intelligence and how can they use it to their advantage? Some companies have already understood how the ecosystem of digital tools is transforming the way we research, create, produce, communicate and sell. Today, several large groups already have their own thinking centers for structuring new digital tools, that is, they already have their own internal laboratories, precisely to understand the degree to which these technologies will be implemented.
Generally, when we talk about artificial intelligence in fashion companies, we can't lump everything together. About 10 years ago, before all this impact we've had, especially with social media, we had the data. We knew more or less who our consumer was, what they bought, and we had a spreadsheet that told us how much they bought, what they liked or disliked. Predictive artificial intelligence already existed. When you buy a pair of jeans, go back to the e-commerce site and it suggests, ‘Look, there’s this t-shirt here,’ reminding you that you bought that. That was already artificial intelligence.
But with social media, with all the sensors and tracking equipment we have in our stores, a large volume of data is generated about your consumer, and you can no longer manage it without automation. For example, you can’t predict demand before producing a piece, but you can count on the help of a tool that will automate this process to understand your consumers’ purchasing behavior and suggest things to you based on this analysis of the patterns they find in the market.
These tools are present in the creative field of the product, but the need for them and their use in the market today is much greater in the management of the business itself. This is the main use of artificial intelligence in companies today, through data management: the tool gathers this data and guides you to a decision through this intersection.
-Which digital tools have been most used and gained prominence in the fashion market today? These are tools made for data analysis, generally customized for each company. There are several data management companies: from Google, all the big techs, Microsoft... And then these AI tools are customized, exactly so that they give the result you want: whether it's color, how much I have to produce, what the volume is, and so on. This is on a more structural level. On a more 'soft' level, which is the creative part, there is basic artificial intelligence, which is ChatGPT and Gemini, for natural language conversation, and Stable Diffusion and Mid Journey, for images.
-What are the main reflections and concerns that the interaction between AI and fashion brings? In the creative field, AI is being used in a way that I think is very incorrect, because these artificial intelligences are often being trained with material without the authorization of their authors, for profit, so that companies can make money from it. This is terrible.
When we talk about artificial intelligence, I advocate a discussion that is much more complex than right and wrong, good and bad. The basis of AI is pattern. AI identifies a pattern and reproduces that pattern; it doesn't create anything. But we are vain in thinking that everything that comes out of a human head is always original, creative and original, as if we didn't also replicate patterns in our lives. I think this tool can be very interesting when we want to discover a pattern in something, perceive it and know how to work on it.
For example, when fashion brands want to predict a trend, the trend is nothing more than a pattern that repeats itself and, after a while, becomes mass consumption. The problem is that there is a great convenience in creating with these tools, a lazy way, because working with a pattern is always easier than working with originality. Because originality hurts more, it is more difficult, and the pattern is more quickly accepted.
When you want to bring something new, you have to be ready for some fights. We are not created for originality, for instability. I believe that in art, it is the same thing: we have to be careful with this convenience and with what the market will establish as a priority, to the detriment of truly new things, which do not appear with the intention of going viral.
mundophone
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