The New York City-based Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT) has announced that its FIT/Infor Design and Technology Lab (DTech Lab) has partnered with IBM Corp. to leverage IBM’s artificial intelligence (AI) for fashion capabilities. IBM’s AI for Fashion application programming interfaces (API’s) were developed to help fashion companies improve customer service, product design, development and merchandising by leveraging deep learning, natural language processing and computer vision. The suite of API’s can be used individually or be incorporated into existing applications.
The DTech Lab partnered with IBM and Tommy Hilfiger in 2018 on the “Reimagine Retail” project, which was designed to show how AI can offer a brand a competitive edge. The project was successful to the point that FIT and IBM are continuing their partnership with innovative research and partner projects that will address challenges in product design, development, merchandising, planning and allocation, and customer sales and service. FIT also plans to integrate IBM’s AI tools into coursework for students.
“Reimagine Retail was a powerful example of what happens when fashion partners with a global tech leader to advance challenging innovations,” said Michael Ferraro, director of the FIT/Infor DTech Lab. “Embedding emerging technology into our lab where faculty and students are solving industry problems is the next step in our evolving relationship with IBM. We’re leveraging the fresh perspectives and new ideas of talented creative students in an agile research environment.”
May/June 2019
