The Interline

Data centres in space, chatbots gone wild on dedicated AI-only forums, and new model demos stuffed with painfully familiar spreadsheets all provide comic relief, but behind the scenes there’s nothing funny about the scale of fashion’s systemic supply chain failures.

While AI has obliterated the bar to generating concepts and consumer-facing images, the AI-native brands that outlast the hype cycle will be those that take full advantage of a platform shift to build completely new routes to, and relationships with, consumers.

The most popular pricing tier of the most popular AI chatbot is becoming ad-supported, but a new company making a cold start is far less likely to change the landscape of fashion and beauty advertising than the under-assault ad tech giant that also runs its own full AI stack.