The Potential of AI in a Context of "Luxury Fatigue"
Despite hesitations to integrate Artificial Intelligence (AI) into the creative process, other opportunities arise to accelerate the creative process, combat counterfeiting, and enhance services. A recent study by the Comité Colbert indicates that 72% of respondents are opposed to integrating AI-based tools in the creative function to avoid denaturing the very essence of luxury. However, AI can offer significant advancements like sketch visualization to speed up the creative process, product authentication to combat counterfeiting through faster and more accurate tools, and service refinement to bring more sophistication.
Although the luxury market appears stable, it has lost 10% of its customer base in two years, a phenomenon known as "luxury fatigue." Thus, the question arises: "Could AI contribute to a reconciliation with the luxury world?"
Key Advances and Use Cases
The use of AI has already shown that it significantly improves clienteling by optimizing customer interactions through segmentation, scoring, and product recommendations while maintaining a reasonable interaction frequency.
For instance, Tiffany uses AI to assist salespeople in crafting personalized messages suited to the customer's tone. At Céline, AI allows querying the store's knowledge base in natural language. Additionally, AI optimizes operations and back-office functions by improving inventory management, production planning, and real-time allocation of creations to markets. Finally, in the field of marketing creation, AI helps generate assets while maintaining luxury standards, but humans remain at the core of research, creation, and dissemination processes.
Perspectives on AI in Luxury
Regarding creation, AI, while it cannot replace the sensitivity and intuition of the creator, frees up time by automating repetitive and low-value tasks. AI must serve the fundamentals of luxury by emphasizing quality, craftsmanship, creativity, and human experience, all while freeing up time for advisors to dedicate fully to clients.
In conclusion, the rich discussions at the Tech for Retail exhibition show how the fusion of technology and human elements can revolutionize the customer experience in the luxury sector, creating unforgettable and personalized experiences.