Entitled “AI for luxury: a disruption in the service of performance”, this survey, which is the second part of the ‘MAD Luxury Fast Forward 2024-2025’ report, immediately recognizes the strategic contribution of this new technology to the industry, which it describes as revolutionary, both for creative experimentation and in terms of productivity gains or hyper-personalization of human relationships. “Artificial intelligence is here to stay, as a formidable catalyst that will allow companies and all their employees to focus on what is at the heart of their business. But all this on condition that they do not neglect “the impact of artificial intelligence on data processing and organizations”, warn the authors.
First observation: if artificial intelligence is on track to transform the long-term creative process of labels, it will not replace their creative studios or the departments that deal with their image. Suffice it to quote the CEO of LVMH, Bernard Arnault, who, questioned on this topic by Les Echos, declared: “artificial intelligence does not replace creation, it reinforces it”. According to the study, these new technological tools will above all make it possible to “delegate execution to artificial intelligences that will automate 3D renderings, patterns and the creation of mood boards”.
It is on the operational side that the authors of the report note the greatest transformations. According to the data cited, 50% of houses already use artificial intelligence for predictive demand management, 38% to optimize the distribution of stock between stores and warehouses, 29% to analyze trends on social networks. These tools “have made it possible to streamline logistics by improving processes in warehouses and optimizing inventory planning. In the sales and merchandising teams of fashion houses, the use of artificial intelligence is becoming increasingly common,” they point out, recalling that artificial intelligence is also used “to refine the distribution of products in each store, define precise customer typologies and identify clusters of boutiques based on refined correlations that teams would not always be able to detect”.
Generative artificial intelligence also makes it possible to improve online shopping experiences by making them more personalized and interactive. It is worth mentioning the “Madeline” initiative launched in 2023 by Kering to offer the KNXT platform a digital “personal shopper”, powered by AI and ChatGPT. This technological dimension is now integrated into consumer behavior. MAD reports that “74% of Internet users prefer to have used chatbots to respond to simple requests such as making an appointment”.
Artificial intelligence proves strategic in clienteling
Another card to play is in the field of clienteling, where “AI really finds its ideal place”. Technological solutions free up consultants’ time to better serve the customer through, on the one hand, automated recommendations of products and other services and experiences of predictive AI tools, which are increasingly relevant because they are powered by behavioral data related to online browsing, and on the other hand, the automatic and almost instantaneous creation, thanks to generative AI tools, of personalized and customer-adapted action proposals.
This support from AI will be extended to all activities of fashion companies, “automating all or part of the most tedious tasks,” both in human resources and recruitment processes, to “automatically filter candidate profiles, generate job descriptions or even identify the most suitable career paths.” Similarly, for the development of items, AI “will be able to automate the production of product sheets and propose collection plans taking into account the style and design of the items sold” and even take charge of seasonal training content regarding new collections or the promotion of corporate values.