Textile and Apparel Industries

Fashion-Centric AI Integration: Navigating Challenges and Opportunities in the Fashion Industry

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Abstract

While artificial intelligence (AI) has been integrated across the fashion industry, scholarly understanding of how AI is conceptualized, applied, and governed remains limited. This study explores fashion AI integration using a mixed-method approach that combines LDA topic modeling of online Reddit discussions (2023-2025) with semi-structured interviews of four fashion industry professionals. Guided by the Technology–Organization–Environment (TOE) framework and Technology Affordances and Constraints Theory (TACT), we explored how AI is defined, affordances and constraints shaping its use, and ethical and policy concerns. Thematic analysis on interview transcripts revealed the following main findings. First, AI enabled value capture through data commodification. Second, AI was (mis)conceptualized at times (e.g., regarded as a “black-box” solution to ambiguous problems). Third, despite developments in text-to-image or video AI tools, the transferability to physical products was prioritized. Lastly, fashion’s classification as a low-risk domain in AI regulation heightened ethical concerns.

Keywords: artificial intelligence, AI ethics, topic modeling, AI governance

How to Cite:

Rhee, H. & Zhao, L., (2025) “Fashion-Centric AI Integration: Navigating Challenges and Opportunities in the Fashion Industry”, International Textile and Apparel Association Annual Conference Proceedings 82(1). doi: https://doi.org/10.31274/itaa.21982