The traditional fashion photoshoots are a logistical headache. It always has been, but it’s something we’ve all accepted and deemed to be worthwhile. But with the lifelike image generation of AI, the entire collaboration may soon be deemed unnecessary thanks to virtual beauty – why use expensive equipment and a photographer to fly out a model to wear many of your clothing items in different settings?
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Visual Identity and Marketing are Becoming More Accessible
AI models are posing a disruptive threat to the monolithic standards of beauty and representation that have long dominated the fashion industry. Rather than casting from a finite (and often similar pool of human talent), brands can now generate visuals that cater to very specific and global audiences. It breaks free from conventional archetypes, but it’s also possible, which small sellers could never achieve.
It creates a degree of creative sovereignty. Of course, large clothing brands can still hire unique and diverse models that are perfect for their brand image and audience – but that’s a bias towards their resources. Smaller brands are no longer limited by physical reality as they can now create “synthetic” personas in many different environments – an AI model with various items from the clothing range can be generated into different settings with different lighting. Even with a big budget, this is logistically difficult to achieve if your vision is unique.
This is already in practice, with Levi announcing its use of AI-generated models to supplement human models – their explanation was to increase diversity across its digital platforms with greater frequency. Already, brands are turning to Modelia.ai’s high-quality AI fashion model generator, among others, to produce a near-infinite variety of on-brand models. This helps keep their visual identity-controlled while being prolific in visual assets.
Hyper-Personalized Marketing
The use of AI models also presents an interesting possibility in regard to personalized marketing at an incredible scale. Companies can analyze huge datasets of customer interactions and preferences to find what models with what virtual beauty traits they’re drawn to, influenced by, and identify with.
Even if this data isn’t understood before the marketing campaign, rapid A/B testing can reveal all. The same photoshoot with 20 different AI models, for example, could be used in rotation on a targeted customer’s feed where it’s then measured how engaged they are with each one. It may be up to the marketing campaign to achieve this today, but in the future, these kinds of preferences might be data that is stored and shared.
Beyond A/B testing though, it’s about identifying nascent micro-trends in visual preference before they hit the mainstream too. Engagement metrics like dwell time, click-through rates and conversion on different AI-generated avatars across social media and e-commerce can be analyzed. Brands could gain competitive intelligence advantages.
The New Economics of Fashion Campaigns
The savings on photographers, studio and model fees are obvious, but it doesn’t end there. The true economic value here lies in the acceleration of the entire content creation pipeline as it reduces launch times from months to mere days. This agility means that idea-to-launch is faster (or perhaps even just testing proof of concept for items that are still in the design phase), meaning that fast fashion just got a whole lot faster.
According to a report by McKinsey, Generative AI could add hundreds of billions to the profits in the fashion industry. The markets will inevitably get more efficient, as resources are allocated in a more responsive and accurate way.
The interesting question is whether power within the industry will get more or less concentrated. On the one hand, traditional models and magazines pushing new trends may decline in influence, all while smaller companies can now better compete in a digital marketing space. However, there is still an economy of data here, and some large tech firms may hold all the cards to new trends.
Redefining the Role of the Human Model with Virtual Beauty
AI-generated models are certainly destabilizing an otherwise long history of model demand. It’s true that models with unique features could well be generated instead, meaning more unique features and diversity exists. But equally, we cannot write off the existence of celebrities and human influence, and so these models may not only continue to get work but have passive income opportunities by selling their image rights to such AI companies – where a digital twin is created.
While it may be difficult for new models entering the industry, it’s often been shrouded in controversy, and many suggest the benefits to small e-commerce stores will outweigh the loss to the profession.
The Future is Synthetic
AI models with virtual beauty are certainly having an impact on the fashion industry, and they’re empowering smaller companies to create visual assets of their products for less money and at a greater scale. In terms of ethics and corporate governance, while there is a loss of paying a human, there is a gain in diversity and catering to users’ future preferences more accurately.
