ChatGPT: could emerging AI tools transform the fashion industry?

Earlier this month (13 February), etailer Very, operated by The Very Group, announced it would transform its product discovery experience with artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning.

By using AI, natural language processing, machine learning and data, the etailer will be able to learn from anonymous interactions to optimise the product discovery experience to provide customers with faster and more personalised results.

It’s only February, but we may as well call it now: AI, the metaverse and, in particular, ChatGPT, are, and will continue to be some of the dominating headlines of the year.

ChatGPT, or Chat Generative Pre-trained Transformer, is an AI-powered chatbot developed by research lab OpenAI. It has gained huge momentum since its public launch in November 2022, reaching 100 million users in the space of two months due to its ability to provide contextualised and processed information.

2022 saw numerous brands launching virtual collections, including Gucci, Zara, Adidas and Prada. As brands continue to find their way in an ever-changing digital world, they should look at how they can use AI within their current operations to the best of their advantage. What new opportunities can AI provide? And where on earth does ChatGPT come into it?

During the pandemic, bricks and mortar shops were off limits and online shopping had to up its game. Ecommerce platforms were quickly modernised, and rudimentary AI functions were brought in.  Retailers have already been using AI to a certain extent, but it feels like, after a couple of years of “getting to know how it works”, we’ve reached a point where its inclusion is something that can’t be ignored.

The global market of AI in the retail industry surpassed $6bn (£4.9bn) in 2022 and is expected to grow at more than 30% over the next 10 years, according to a report published by consulting firm Global Market Insights in January. This indicates that, over time, it could have a gargantuan effect on the retail sector. How? If you’ve ever had a frustrating chat text conversation with a retail website - the kind where their responses don’t just sound robotic but also completely off the mark – that’s where AI can help.

ChatGPT specifically aims to change all that by genuinely helping you and doing it in an intuitive and conversational way. Its dialogue format allows it to answer follow-up questions, admit its mistakes, challenge incorrect premises, and reject inappropriate requests. It could be a game changer for when consumers need to check something about an order with what feels like a human.

How can AI genuinely help

There are so many AI options to implement in retail operations that it’s impossible to list them all. But here’s a few, along with their benefits:

In general, it will make people more efficient at what they do. It will remove or automate a lot of low-medium skill, time-intensive jobs. Need to write a test script [which is a set of instructions to test all the activities on various user journeys] for some code? ChatGPT can do it faster and better in an automated process. Speeding up time taken to complete simple tasks will enable companies to take on initiatives that haven’t been attempted before because it reduces the cost [of doing it over and over again], risk or time to success or failure.

Other AI technology can provide instant support for many languages through high quality automatic translation - extremely important for brands with an international reach.

Personalised brand marketing is a hot topic. AI could create much more significant personalisation by sifting through vast amounts of data already collected on individuals, and comparing it to likeminded individuals (much more intelligently than “other people who bought that also bought this”) and dynamically figuring out what is most relevant to that person.

Taken even further, AI in the future could deliver whole websites dynamically, tailored to a brand, a demographic, or even an individual. Examples of dynamic websites include social media, which generate unique, personalised content for their users.

Retail returns take three times longer to process than other sectors, according to statistics from logistic firm ShipNetwork in January 2023. This means longer staff hours and costs. Automating this will help customers make better choices, meaning fewer returns.

AI can design packaging and labels based on product positioning and strategy documents. Previously, focus groups and market research helped achieve the perfect logo or design, now it can be done digitally.

Should employees be worried?

There’s no point sugar coating it: people will be worried if their jobs are at risk due to automation. While there are jobs that will be made redundant because technology does them more efficiently, history has proven that it will also create new jobs which didn’t exist before, such as web developers and SEO analysts.

Companies that embrace digital and invest in AI will need to hire people who understand how to work with it in order to make it effective across the organisation. And, with the rate AI is expanding in the retail industry, that could mean a lot of job openings.

One thing is clear. The metaverse, AI and certainly ChatGPT aren't going anywhere so it's time to embrace them because the opportunities are endless. Hello, digital world.