I’m often asked whether AI is an existential threat to humanity. For a fashion house, the more useful question is what it can do to your business this week. Employees hear apocalyptic narratives from one group and “adopt or be left behind” from the other — and sometimes, they’re both the same. Both shut down thinking, and neither tells anyone what to do with this conflicting information.
This is where good leadership comes in. You should not be afraid to say: here’s what we use AI for, here’s what we never will, and here’s who is accountable when it goes wrong. Tell your creative teams which parts of their work AI won’t replace, then make your staff part of the testing. The people who run your stores and answer your customers will find failures faster than any vendor demo. Reward them for reporting problems early, not for hiding them. Use AI to serve your customer, not to replace the person your customer came for.
Self-regulation hasn’t earned the public’s trust in tech, and it won’t earn it in fashion either. The brands customers will trust are the ones that publish where they use AI and where they don’t, label synthetic imagery, require consent before anyone’s likeness is copied, and invite independent evaluators to check whether they’re keeping their word. Some of this is already law. New York requires models’ consent before a digital replica of them can be made, and clear labels on ads that feature synthetic performers. Whatever isn’t covered by regulation is a choice. Aerie made it when it promised no AI-generated bodies or people in its ads, and the announcement became its most-liked Instagram post in a year.
Years ago, I told US Congress that “brakes help you drive faster”. I still believe it. Every time I’ve helped build AI with enforceable guardrails, people became more willing to use it, because they knew someone was accountable if it went wrong. Customers deciding whether to trust your brand work the same way. Guardrails aren’t a cost to the brand; they’re part of the brand.
Brands that keep the human — and human choice — at the center of their AI will be the ones customers still trust when the next scandal hits.
