What is AI in fashion? A complete guide to AI across the fashion value chain
From design and planning to wholesale, supply chain and e-commerce: what artificial intelligence really does in fashion today, what data it needs and where its limits are.
Strategy, Data & Regulation · Explainer
EU AI Act: what do fashion companies need to know in 2026?
The EU AI Act is in force, and the Digital Omnibus has moved the high-risk deadlines. What already applies to fashion brands and retailers, what comes next and where the real exposure lies.
Wholesale & B2B · Guide
AI in B2B fashion wholesale: the complete guide
Where artificial intelligence creates real value between brands and retail partners, what data it needs, how buyers already use it and where the limits are.
Guides
Where fashion meets artificial intelligence.DesignThe complete guide to AI in fashion design and product developmentMerchandisingThe complete guide to AI in fashion merchandising and buyingWholesaleThe complete guide to AI in fashion wholesale and B2BCommerceThe complete guide to AI in fashion e-commerce, marketing and retailSupply ChainThe complete guide to AI in the fashion supply chain and sustainabilityStrategyThe complete guide to AI strategy for fashion companies
Case studies
How leading fashion companies use AI: documented deployments, reported results and the lessons for everyone else.
AI by roleWhat AI changes for buyers, merchandisers, designers, sales teams, e-commerce, finance, IT and supply chain.AI by segmentHow AI plays out in luxury, sportswear, fast fashion, footwear, denim, resale, mid-market brands and basics.Monthly reviewThe month's most relevant AI news for the fashion business, verified, sourced and explained.
Strategy, Data & Regulation
Strategy, data foundations, ROI, teams and the EU AI Act.
How Shein uses data and algorithms: the on-demand model and its criticism
Shein says it orders new designs in batches of 100 to 200 pieces and scales them on demand signals. How the data-driven model works, what is claimed, and why regulators and designers criticise it.
Strategy, Data & Regulation · Case Study
How does LVMH organise AI? The AI Factory, maison agents and the Innovation Award
Strategy, Data & Regulation · Case Study
How Burberry uses data and AI across clienteling, design and the supply chain
Strategy, Data & Regulation · Analysis
Who owns the customer when an AI agent shops? Brand control in agentic commerce
Strategy, Data & Regulation · Analysis
Which fashion jobs change first with AI? A task-level view
Design & Product
AI from first sketch to finished product data.
The Guess AI model ad in Vogue: what happened and what brands should learn
A Guess advert featuring an AI-generated model ran in Vogue US in August 2025 with a small disclosure line. The backlash, and new disclosure laws since, set out what brands now need to get right.
Clienteling
How Prada Group applies digital tools and AI to product development and clienteling
MarketingWhy did Valentino's AI-generated DeVain campaign cause a backlash?
RegulationWho owns an AI-generated fashion design? Copyright and IP explained
RegulationAI dupes and design copying: how brands protect prints and silhouettes in 2026
AI IN ONE SENTENCE
AI agentAn AI system that can plan and carry out multi-step tasks, using tools and data, with limited human instruction.Demand forecastingPredicting future sales of products using historical data, trends and other signals, increasingly with machine learning.LLMLarge Language Model: an AI model trained on large amounts of text that can understand and generate natural language.Generative AIAI that creates new content such as text, images, video or designs based on patterns learned from training data.GlossaryMerchandising & Buying
Forecasting, assortments, allocation and the numbers behind them.
How H&M uses AI: demand, allocation and digital twins
H&M has applied analytics and AI to buying quantities, store allocation and pricing since 2018, and to campaign imagery since 2025. What is documented, and what it has not disclosed.
Merchandising & Buying · Case Study
Walmart's Trend-to-Product: how AI cut fashion development timelines
Merchandising & Buying · Analysis
AI in fast fashion: speed, demand signals and the overproduction problem
Merchandising & Buying · Analysis
Dynamic pricing in fashion: where does AI help and where does it harm the brand?
Merchandising & Buying · Analysis
How should fashion brands manage the inventory risk of TikTok micro-trends?
Topic hub
Wholesale & B2B
AI between brands and retailers: showrooms, orders, re-orders.
Wholesale & B2B · Analysis
Can AI forecast a full pre-order book from the first 20 percent of orders?
Wholesale & B2B · Analysis
AI agents in B2B order entry: what will retailers' buying bots expect from brands?
Wholesale & B2B · Case Study
How did PVH and Tommy Hilfiger digitise wholesale with showrooms, 3D and data?
Wholesale & B2B · Analysis
How do you separate real AI from marketing in wholesale platforms?
AI IN FASHION IN NUMBERS
Verified figures on how the fashion and apparel business is adopting, funding and governing artificial intelligence, each linked to its original source.35%+
More than 35% of fashion and luxury executives surveyed for the BoF-McKinsey State of Fashion 2026 report said their companies were already using generative AI in areas such as online customer service, image creation, copywriting, consumer search or product discovery.
McKinsey & Company and The Business of Fashion, The State of Fashion 2026: When the rules change, 2025
73%
73% of global fashion executives surveyed for the State of Fashion 2024 Executive Survey said generative AI would be a key priority for their businesses in the following year.
McKinsey & Company, Gen AI is so hot right now (chart based on the BoF-McKinsey State of Fashion 2024 Executive Survey), 2024
62%
62% of fashion leaders in the same State of Fashion 2024 survey said their companies already used generative AI, for example for online shopping assistance and writing product descriptions; this is a different survey wave and question from the 2026 figure above.
McKinsey & Company, Gen AI is so hot right now (chart based on the BoF-McKinsey State of Fashion 2024 Executive Survey), 2024
34% / 28%
In the State of Fashion 2024 Executive Survey, marketing and copywriting was the most cited generative AI use case (34% of respondents), followed by design and product development (28%).
McKinsey & Company, Gen AI is so hot right now (chart based on the BoF-McKinsey State of Fashion 2024 Executive Survey), 2024
The Long Read · Strategy, Data & Regulation
Fashion technology trends 2026: what is real and what is hype
AI shopping assistants, agentic checkout, virtual try-on and enterprise agents: a sober look at which fashion technology trends are delivering in 2026 and which are still mostly promise.
Supply Chain & Sustainability
Sourcing, quality, circularity and product passports.REGULATION TRACKER
EU rules affecting fashion products, verified against official sources.
- 18 July 2024
- 1 August 2024
- 2 February 2025
- 2 August 2025
- 16 October 2025
- 19 July 2026
- 20 July 2026
- 2 August 2026
- 27 September 2026
- 2 December 2027
- 2027 Q4
- 2028 04
Supply Chain & Sustainability · Case Study
How Inditex uses AI and data: RFID and a demand-driven supply chain
Supply Chain & Sustainability · Analysis
How can fashion brands use AI scenario planning for tariffs and sourcing in 2026?
Supply Chain & Sustainability · Case Study
How Uniqlo and Fast Retailing use AI and data in the Ariake Project
Supply Chain & Sustainability · Case Study