Accenture: 'Artificial agent intelligence will support the fashion industry'

A 'high-impact' technology that will not, however, 'destroy or radically change the industry'. Which 'will not supplant humans in their activities', but will enhance them. Not without risks. Among them, a potentially huge digital divide: 'the one between the people who will know how to use it and the people who, instead, will not have this competence'. Speaking about artificial intelligence on the stage of the 16th edition of the Luxury Summit was Andrea Ruzzi, Head of Consumer and Manufacturing at Accenture Italia. The manager dwelt on the types of artificial intelligence that are currently in use in the fashion world. Generative Artificial Intelligence, for example: 'There has not been an explosive use of this technology in product development,' explained Ruzzi, who at the Luxury Summit in 2024 had anticipated some of the trends we observe today, 'but it is used a lot in the optimisation of the life cycle of prototypes. Making them can cost tens of millions of euro and often as much as 80% of the samples are then not produced. Artificial intelligence, in this sense, responds to the company's need for economic efficiency'. Then there is the impact on creativity: 'Hybrid' photo shoots are becoming increasingly popular, in which the product is photographed but the generative Ia then creates a context in which to insert the product image. And the cost of the service drops by 30 per cent'.

The next frontier, however, is no longer generative artificial intelligence, but agentic artificial intelligence: 'Ia agents do not just generate content: they act, learn and adapt,' Ruzzi emphasised. 'They are capable of planning, remembering interactions and reacting in real time, continuously'. The practical applications would be diverse: 'From planning a trip, with one agent taking care of the agenda of the stages and interacting with another agent who, instead, makes the bookings'.

In fashion, concretely, this type of technology could guarantee an intelligent coordination between merchandising, production, distribution. And not only: 'it could also help to manage emergencies that may occur, perhaps linked to geopolitical issues or episodes such as the blackout that occurred recently in Spain'.

Then there is a further development step being studied: AI applied to the physical world. "This is something we are already working on,' Ruzzi said. 'In distribution logistics, for example, they are trying to insert artificial intelligence into robots, enabling them to have spatial awareness and to be able to relate fluidly with the objects around them.

The potential applications in fashion, again, are diverse: from logistics to quality control to assistance in non-automated warehouses.