Technology and AI applied to fashion: The keys to the BoF Professional Summit 2023

This year's edition of the BoF Professional Summit addressed the impact of artificial intelligence and Web3 on fashion, exploring the opportunities and challenges they present for the industry: product customization, improving the customer experience, the importance of strategic collaboration and sustainability. A forum that has had a very heterogeneous partition, formed by creatives, executives and experts in innovation and technology of some of the most important brands in the industry, as well as some professionals from technology companies.

Speakers included Michael J. Wolf, CEO of Activate; Dr. Ahmed Zaidi, CEO and co-founder of Hyran Technologies; Robert Triefus, CEO of Gucci Vault and Metaverse Ventures; and Rahul Malik of BoF, among others. They all raised three key technology issues that will shape the industry in the coming year:

• Fashion & Artificial Intelligence: An increasingly close relationship, as AI is already routinely used to predict demand, set prices, design products and create new ways of interacting with customers.
• Fashion Tech Solutions: Technology is transforming the entire fashion value chain, from the customer path to purchase to customer interaction, through community platforms such as Discord.
• The Web3 Reality Check: An analysis of the potential of web3 and how it relates to creativity and brand community. Speakers discussed the future of this technology and the potential return on investment for fashion companies.

The day was opened by Michael J. Wolf. In his speech, the CEO of the technology company explained where customers spend their time, attention and money and how companies can take advantage of this. Wolf shared some statistics that show that 77% of the 148 million gamers in the United States also participate in other types of platforms where they are socializing and acquiring, not so much money, but prestige.

Also Adam Petrick, Puma's brand director, spoke about community platforms, such as Discord, and advised those looking to join them to be prepared to receive negative feedback and engage the audience with transparency.

Especially interesting, too, was Amy Gershkoff Bolles, global director of digital strategy at Levi's. The brand has been using AI in its retail strategy since 2019, for things as varied as matching thread color, determining which products go to which stores, or understanding how weather can affect purchasing decisions. By analyzing consumer preferences, Levi's adjusts the variety of products in its stores. It also announced that the company will adopt the use of AI-generated models on its website to make customers feel more identified with them.

In a keynote focused on Web3, Robert Triefus, CEO of Gucci Vault and Metaverse Ventures, explained why it could change the way fashion brands interact with consumers, citing examples such as Gucci's partnership with Roblox.

Another presentation, titled "Using AI to Decode Brand Magic," had Quilt.AI CEO Anurag Banerjee presenting on how his technology uses AI to index more than 22 billion online images and understand human diversity to find the connection between brand messages and how the brand is consumed.

In the same presentation, Rahul Malik of BoF explained how, by overlaying brands on an archetypal model, they can identify patterns and similarities between consumers and brands; based on a case study around Chanel.

One of the open questions raised by the session was whether brands should go where consumers are or, instead, take consumers where they choose.

Innovation: the challenge of keeping eyes open for fashion companies

The BoF Professional Summit has presented a panorama full of growth opportunities for fashion companies that know how to take advantage of them. The challenges posed are complex and require careful prior research to decide which is the best option in the case of each company.

Rahul Malik will be one of this year's speakers at ISEM's Fashion Business iQ program, which will take place in New York from July 10-14. A unique opportunity to learn about the latest examples of innovation in the American industry and hear first-hand from the leaders who are making it happen.