The economic prospects for generative AI like ChatGPT in the apparel industry might be enormous in a global fashion business that, prior to the Covid-19 outbreak, was estimated by the multinational consultant McKinsey to be worth US $ 2.5 trillion in revenue.
Its abbreviation, GPT, stands for ‘generative pretrained transformer’ and refers to a free-to-use natural language processing model. ChatGPT, a system that was created and released in November 2022 by the US-based artificial intelligence research group OpenAI, uses what are known as ‘self-attention mechanisms’—a system that absorbs data from a source, like the Internet, and produces data in the form of text. Since its launch, ChatGPT has been joined by Bard, Google’s rival generative AI product which it launched in March (2023).
The garment industry is already detecting how ChatGPT might help it right down the supply chain, from customer engagement to manufacturing processes, according to Bharati Rathore, a specialist in fashion management at Birmingham City University’s Department of Fashion and Textiles in the UK.
“Academic research on ChatGPT in the textile industry could focus on how this technology can be used to optimise the production process, generate meaningful and automated customer support, or develop personalised recommendations for shoppers,” she explained.
In February of last year, Tribute Brand founder Gala Marija Vrbanić told fashion magazine Vogue that she already uses ChatGPT for marketing. She gave the magazine the example of how she asked the chatbot to write a ‘bizarre’ story about a virtual brand ambassador to produce a five-paragraph story that was used in a marketing campaign.
According to Shadi Adada, CEO of FittDesign, a design and production company based in Beirut, Lebanon, fashion brand owners have a ‘tremendous opportunity’ to use ChatGPT to increase the productivity of their companies. He makes the suggestion that the programme can be used to write emails for customer service, develop social media campaigns, and function as a consultant for fashion brands.
Dr. Vaggelis Giannikas, an Associate Professor at the University of Bath’s School of Management in south-west England, thinks ChatGPT will assist convey information and comprehension about how to optimise supply chains, particularly those for clothing.
