In a bygone era of business, operating in fashion largely meant having a vision, having a designer, having a team with a sensible leader, having a manufacturer and having a consumer you could interest in your product.
Today, while that’s still largely the gist of it, no single part of the process can be done without the right technology and, increasingly, it’s becoming challenging to see business success if that technology isn’t advanced enough to connect the whole process and use data to anticipate your next best moves.
“Industry strategy and technology adoption are now deeply wound up in one another,” according to a new report, Fashion & Technology in 2025 released by FASHION by Informa and The Interline. “Decoding what’s next in fashion is as much about documenting the way professionals interact with software, systems, data and processes…as it is about charting the sector-specific priorities and macro-level forces that determine the top-line objectives the industry has set for itself.”
And in an era where those macro-level forces can include swiftly-levied and excessively burdensome tariffs, as well as economic uncertainty and political tensions, to name just a few, profitability and margin protection are top of mind for fashion businesses, though most are still confounded about how to secure it. Still, 92 percent of those surveyed for the report said they know technology is the essential unlock.
Most (89 percent) are interested in 3D and digital product creation tools to advance design and development operations, and 80 percent have already invested in AI projects or plan to before the year ends. It’s clear technology is the new competitive advantage, but it’s still very much its own business challenge.
“Additional to the intricacies of identifying the right solution and effectively implementing it, uneven uptake of technology could also serve to raise the baseline of market competition, which fashion professionals see as a larger concern than being able to recruit the right talent,” according to the report. “The more brands that successfully deploy technology to predict demand and optimize inventory, for example, the less room other brands have to adjust their own strategies without adopting the same technology—which may be out of their reach for a variety of reasons. There could be, in effect, a technological arms race developing.”
“The more brands that successfully deploy technology to predict demand and optimize inventory…, the less room other brands have to adjust their own strategies without adopting the same technology.”
—FASHION by Informa and The Interline
Mismatched Priorities
While companies are comfortable placing their trust in software, hardware and innovation, they know it’s going to take appropriately trained humans to support it and, for now, acquiring talent remains low on their list of priorities.
Improving product quality and fit also ranked lower on companies’ lists of challenges to tackle—by contrast, consumers ranked this their top decision-making criteria.
“In light of the strong industry drive towards improving profitability, this reduced focus on improving product quality and sizing—both of which have a direct impact on sales, returns and customer satisfaction—represents a missed opportunity that prescient brands and retailers could move quickly to address,” the report noted.
Whether they embrace the opportunity or not will remain to be seen, but it’s clear technology adoption won’t be a straightforward cure-all for business woes. In some cases, there’s an imbalance of adoption across internal departments and un-siloed collaboration will be key. But what has proven perhaps a bigger challenge, is the imbalance in adoption between brands and suppliers.
“This can manifest in many different ways, but common examples include difficulties in centralizing product data and providing live access to it, a lack of visibility and accountability originating from communications that take place outside established systems, and struggles with aligning different stakeholders around a common calendar,” the report noted. As one survey respondent added, “[We encounter] a lack of understanding at the buyer end, and [they fall back to] a conventional approach, pushing physical samples.”
It takes two to tango and it can’t be that one person tangos in the latest, greatest dancing shoes while the other remains barefoot.
Tech Trends to Watch
As the industry grapples with how to navigate these new challenges, FASHION by Informa and The Interline say there are three major technology trends set to define 2025.
Balancing AI’s Benefits & Drawbacks
The first is that AI will move from potential to focused solutions. Of those surveyed, nearly 83 percent expect AI to deliver value for fashion in the next year. As many as 57 percent of fashion companies already have one or more AI projects live or in development today, and that number is expected to rise to 80 percent before the end of the year. In light of all that, some companies have expressed concerns that the energy consumption and emissions that will come about from all this new tech will undo progress the industry had already made with regard to reducing carbon footprints—a very real reality for fashion to contend with. One survey respondent said, “[It will be important for] the cost of an AI prompt and the energy consumption [to be] traceable for brands, and embedded into sustainable traceability.”
Meeting Updated Sustainability Mandates
The second trend set to define this year is that fashion will enter the next stage of sustainability. While 80 percent of fashion businesses surveyed see technology as key to unlocking the data needed for traceability and disclosure, 27 percent indicated no active investment in sustainability for the coming year. But they won’t be able to simply ignore it.
“Taking account of the volume and variety of legislation, and the progressive trickle-down of enforcement from larger to smaller brands over time, the majority of fashion organizations will soon face an urgent need to capture and disclose data that is difficult (if not impossible) to reliably gather and communicate without the help of technology,” the report noted.
3D Enters a New Era
The final trend defining the current times, according to the report, is that 3D will move from a design tool to full scale digital transformation. A total 86 percent of fashion companies have either already implemented 3D and digital product creation technologies or plan to in the next year.
“This is the most pronounced roll-out of these three strategic technology pillars, demonstrating that a technology that, to many people, still seems novel is in fact already industrialized and integrated into the way fashion businesses operate—and this is true for both the biggest brands and the smallest, with little variance in either optimism or adoption between those two cohorts,” according to the report.
Nearly all (94 percent) of fashion professionals know technology is critical to the future of fashion, but it’s going to have to deliver on a lot—from functionality to ethics, efficiency and improved sustainability.
“To truly earn its multifaceted role in the future of fashion, technology must meet a high bar for functionality, value and user satisfaction,” FASHION by Informa and The Interline said. “For technology providers, this will mean ensuring that their roadmaps are not just accelerated but are also oriented correctly, and shaped by the nuances of demand from their customers across the fashion value chain.
“Based on how successfully that orientation is perceived today, there is considerable ground for technology to still gain.”
