Apparel leaders say AI delivers its biggest gains when companies rethink workflows, connect teams and suppliers, and choose technology around a clear business goal.
Fashion has spent years digitizing product creation, first through 3D and now at an accelerating pace through artificial intelligence. As the technology gets faster and easier to use, apparel companies are confronting a bigger question: What exactly are they trying to accomplish with it?
For executives from H&M, Primark, VILA and The Fabricant, the next phase of digital product creation centers on process, people and purpose. At The Fashion Tech Show Europe 2026, they discussed how AI can dramatically accelerate individual tasks, while 3D continues to provide the precision needed for areas such as pattern development and fit. Turning those capabilities into shorter lead times, better products or more efficient supply chains requires companies to rethink the workflows surrounding them.
Kerry Murphy, co-founder and CEO of The Fabricant, sees complementary strengths in the two technologies.
“The most powerful tool and the most powerful person is somebody who understands 3D and AI together,” Murphy said. “While 3D is extremely good in accuracy, in pattern data, in the manufacturing information, AI is extremely fast and extremely good when it comes down to the communication of the visuals [and] trying to bridge the gap from digital to physical.”
For Bhargava Ram Kummamuru, head of digital product creation at H&M, choosing between technologies misses the larger opportunity.
“I think for me it’s not a question anymore about 3D versus AI or 3D or AI or anything,” he said. “It boils down to process and people, purpose and process.”
Start With the Business Problem
H&M’s approach is to determine what it wants to accomplish and select the technology that best supports that goal.
That could mean 3D for pattern and fit work, AI for other parts of product creation or even traditional tools where they remain the most effective choice.
“As brands, I believe at least at H&M, what we’re trying to do is put process and purpose first and look at which tools and which technology fits to that purpose and the process,” said Bhargava Ram Kummamuru, head of digital product Creation, H&M. “We should talk about the purpose and the process behind what we want to do and find the right tools and technology that helps us as brands to create the best product.”
Janette Cox, head of fit and digital product creation at Primark, is taking a similar approach. Her priorities include strengthening the underlying processes that determine fit and product consistency before layering additional technology onto them.
Brands can have different grading standards between departments, inconsistent supplier communication and products passing through multiple touchpoints for relatively minor changes. Digital transformation provides an opportunity to examine those fundamentals.
“Foundations, process first, and then understanding what our goal is and what do we want to do,” Cox said. “It might be as simple as we want to eliminate excessive sample rounds using digital technology. Stay there and focus there, but don’t leave behind the process and what you’re solving for and start really small. And then you’ll start moving mountains.”
For Primark, fit offers a particularly tangible example. Cox wants greater consistency for customers taking several versions of a basic product into a fitting room.
“That’s what we’re building now: reestablishing our foundations and how do we become more consistent to our customer,” she said. “Digital technology is not going to solve that. Process and purpose is going to solve that. And then we’re going to layer in those efficiencies and ways of working as we go on that journey.”
Faster Technology Requires Faster Processes
AI can compress work that previously took hours into minutes. Companies only capture that time if the rest of the workflow changes with it.
Kummamuru recalled being asked whether AI had reduced lead times in his organization.
“I was like, not really. The reason—it’s not AI, it’s a process,” he said. “If I still do AI and don’t change my process, my lead time will stay the same.”
He offered a simple scenario: If a designer reduces two hours of work to 10 minutes through AI and the subsequent process continues on its old schedule, the company has gained individual productivity without shortening its overall calendar.
“Something has to change in order to get the output that we want,” Kummamuru said. “Technology is just one of the enablers. But we have to change. The process has to change. The people have to change.”
Workflow connectivity is also a focus at Primark. Designers are piloting AI from the concept stage while sourcing teams are exploring AI for supplier data. Cox is examining how those pieces connect into production, including pattern creation and streamlined tech packs.
“It’s about workflow,” she said. “Tools will not solve that workflow.”
AI Can Extend the Value of Existing Product
At VILA, digital 3D and AI manager Claudia Pan Vazquez works at the intersection of product, sales and marketing. She sees an opportunity to use AI to get more value from products already in the assortment.
A product originally conceived for a Nordic market, for example, may need to be communicated differently when VILA sells it in Spain. AI gives the brand additional ways to adapt its storytelling and presentation to different audiences.
“How can we use tools like AI? How can we use the trend, the story that the designers have built on the back to translate and communicate what a product can mean across different regions?” Pan Vazquez said. “How I see these tools and how it’s evolving is how we can grow in terms of coverage. How can we respect the product that we have built? Not create more product but actually adapt it to the audience.”
That creates a potentially significant commercial use case for generative technology: expanding the relevance and marketing possibilities of an existing assortment without automatically expanding SKU counts.
The Fabricant has experienced a similar evolution from the digital side. The company initially specialized in high-quality 3D visualization and digital fashion before moving heavily into AI. Murphy said tasks that once required days of 3D work can now happen almost immediately with AI.
“The technologies enabled it,” he said of digitally dressing people for social media. “But still I think the experience that we used to advocate for is more for something that’s for gaming.”
The technology has solved much of the scalability challenge around creating the imagery. Finding a scalable business model for digital-only clothing has proved harder.
The Supply Chain Belongs in the Digital Conversation
Digital product creation also needs to extend beyond brand headquarters.
Cox urged companies to bring suppliers into transformation projects early, particularly as brands attempt to scale 3D and AI across their organizations.
“Do not leave your supply chain and your suppliers out of this conversation,” she said. “They know more than we do. They’ve been on this journey longer with multiple different retailers and brands globally. And they can really help us accelerate and scale these new ways of working.”
The supply chain becomes even more important as brands explore personalization and on-demand manufacturing.
Kummamuru sees AI potentially contributing less through generating personalized designs and more through the infrastructure required to produce them efficiently.
“Maybe we can use AI for actually optimizing our backend pipelines that automatically [understand] which sourcing locations are available,” he said. “How can we make it easily that when somebody orders something you can actually get it, reducing overstocks and everything?”
The commercial challenge increases with scale. Producing personalized products in a small market is one proposition; coordinating materials, factories and fulfillment across a global apparel supply chain is another.
Digital Skills Are Becoming Human Skills
The evolution of digital product creation is also changing what companies need from their teams.
Cox expects traditional craft skills in pattern making, garment technology and design to remain valuable while curiosity, collaboration and agility become increasingly important.
“Be prepared to think outside the box, collaborate, be agile and think differently,” she said.
Kummamuru expects roles to evolve toward deeper craftsmanship as software takes over more tool-specific tasks. Designers may spend less time learning the tech and more time developing expertise in fabric, garment construction, visual expression, photography and other disciplines that help them judge and direct AI-generated work.
“Which tools to press, which buttons to press is not your skill,” he said.
Kummamuru summed up the approach he wants apparel companies to carry into the next phase of digital transformation: “Keep emotions of protecting technologies and tools and everything out. We don’t get paid by the software companies. We get paid by the brand. Let’s be loyal by looking at what’s best for the company, not what’s best for the software companies.”
