IBM announced that the Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT) will leverage IBM’s artificial intelligence (AI) for fashion capabilities.
IBM will develop application programming interfaces (APIs) for the global fashion industry that leverage deep learning, natural language processing, and computer vision.
The main goal of the AI project is to help fashion companies improve customer experience, enhance product design, development, and merchandising/planning activities, and augment merchandise performance analysis.
These APIs can be delivered individually, incorporated into existing applications, and/or be leveraged to develop new retail applications, such as trend identification or analysis, product design, development, and merchandising.
FIT’s initial experience with IBM AI for Fashion was in 2018 when Tommy Hilfiger teamed with IBM and the DTech Lab on “Reimagine Retail,” a project to show how AI can give a fashion brand a competitive edge with market insights, product design, personalization and supply chain optimization.
The tools also equipped the next generation of retail leaders with new skills using AI in design, said Michael Ferraro, director of the FIT/Infor DTech Lab.
“After the IBM-FIT project for Tommy Hilfiger last year, formalizing our relationship with FIT is a natural next step to accelerate our development of AI solutions for the fashion industry,” said Luq Niazi, Global Consumer Industry Managing Director at IBM.
FIT will use IBM AI for Fashion capabilities within its DTech Lab, an innovation center that partners with industry to engage in innovative research that drives changes in the $2.5 trillion fashion industry.
IBM and FIT will work together to help fashion companies develop solutions to address challenges in product design and development, merchandising, planning and allocation, and customer sales and service.
FIT faculty are exploring opportunities to integrate IBM’s AI tools into existing courses in Math, Science, Creative Technology and Design, Fashion Design, and Fashion Business Management, helping students throughout the college prepare to lead the workforce of the future.
