Textiles Intelligence partners with the ASBCI to analyse the role of artificial intelligence (AI) in the fashion industry

Textiles Intelligence is the official media partner of a forthcoming industry conference which will analyse the challenges and opportunities of artificial intelligence (AI) in the textiles and clothing industries. The conference is being hosted by the Association of Suppliers to the British Clothing Industry (ASBCI) and it will take place on October 16, 2024, in Halifax, UK.

AI tools are poised to disrupt the entire fashion value chain—from trend prediction, product development and stock optimisation to personalised marketing, customer journeys and retail design.

In particular, they are set to drive innovation, create competitive advantages, give rise to new risks and raise ethical questions as to how this new technology can be exploited.

The ASBCI conference on October 16, 2024, will explore how the textile and clothing industries can harness the rewards of AI while mitigating the risks and fulfilling its responsibilities to businesses, people and the planet.

At the conference, technologists, experts at the forefront of AI innovation and retailers pioneering AI tools will provide use cases, highlight the potential benefits, and consider the legal, ethical and sustainability risks associated with AI innovations.

The keynote presentation will be delivered by Dr Ahmed Zaidi, a visiting AI researcher at the University of Cambridge and the chief executive officer (CEO) and co-founder of Hyran Technologies—an AI platform which helps brands and suppliers respond to consumer demand, increase profitability and reduce waste. Dr Zaidi will address how AI can help the textile and clothing industries to meet their core, long-standing challenges by exploring the intersection of fashion and AI.

Jack Stratten—the head of trends at the retail trendspotting agency Insider Trends—will provide an overview of innovation and AI in retail and will highlight the positives and negatives of AI in the real world and in real time. Insider Trends works with a number of major retail brands—including Galleries Lafayette, Tommy Hilfiger and Westfield—to identify the key trends in retail.

Nick Eley, the head of digital creation at ASOS, will provide the retailer’s perspective on the rise and integration of AI in product design and presentation. He will explain how the use of three-dimensional (3D) software, AI and emerging technology is driving innovation and efficiencies at ASOS, enhancing creativity, streamlining workflows and reducing time to market.

The power of AI to improve real-time supply chain transparency and actionable insights will be explored by Cedric Hoffman, the co-founder of the AI-powered supply chain platform Ameba. He will highlight how AI can automatically extract and structure relevant product and supplier information from existing communication flows and how this is helping businesses to improve their operational efficiencies and make space for innovation and growth. And Andrew Dalziel, from software provider Infor, will consider how AI could revolutionise areas such as demand prediction and inventory optimisation in order to enhance the customer experience.

Focusing on the creative process, Peter Gallagher-Witham and Jon Smith, the co-founders of The Fashion Guild, will explore the benefits and threats of AI in the design process and share their experiences of AI image generation software—asking whether it will lead to revolution or redundancy.

Personalisation expert Sarah McVittie, from Dressipi, will explain how harnessing AI insights can help brands and retailers to combat overproduction. Ms McVittie is passionate about reducing the terminal stock waste which results from overproduction. She will explore the size of the waste problem, the changes required, and how to achieve the changes using AI tools.

Linked to this problem is AI’s potential to tackle another intractable industry issue—size and fit. Jason Wang, the chief operating officer of Alvanon, has been pivotal to the company’s AI developments in this field, and he will share his expertise on how emerging technologies can help brands and retailers to cater better to their customers’ fit requirements.

Meanwhile, Norv Bell, the founder of The Bureau model agency, will discuss AI’s legal minefield when it comes to intellectual property rights and HR, and Simon Platts—the co-founder and board advisor at Recomme.co and an ASBCI director—will share his expertise on the use of AI along the supply chain, and in sustainability and double materiality assessment.

Further exploring the sustainability angle will be James Omisakin, the co-founder of Compare Ethics— an organisation which deals with issues that include the environment, human rights, compliance, and AI technology.

Two panel discussions—moderated by Jenny Holloway from Fashion-Enter and Simon Platts, respectively—will consider the risks, rewards and responsibilities of generative AI and AI for data analysis.

Announcing the conference, the chair of the ASBCI, Julie King, said: “Understanding the risks and potential of AI is a key priority for the fashion industry and one that touches on so many of the challenges our members are facing.

“But with so many tools under the AI umbrella, and such rapid and far-reaching change, it can be challenging to keep on top of developments and cut through the noise to understand what we should and should not be doing, when and how. This conference is an unmissable opportunity to explore the topic from all angles and perspectives at what is a pivotal moment for the industry.”