You just published Luxury & artificial intelligence, published by Dunod. Why did you specifically focus on this topic?
Stéphane Galienni. A little over a year ago, I published another book, The Web3 Wave (Dunod), on the already submerged world of the metaverse. I saw the AI coming at full speed. By focusing on Web3, I had fallen behind… As an agency director in digital for luxury, I am obliged to be at the cutting edge. And I suddenly felt very afraid for my work, thinking that technology was going to pass me by. So I got my hands dirty, and spent a lot of time testing lots of things. I created a virtual influencer, and it started to take off. Today, my activity is almost 100% dedicated to the creation and production of projects using artificial intelligence. The aim of the book, whose content is constantly updated and enriched digitally, is to show what is being done right and left, and to show all the scenarios.
But already today, are many luxury projects being carried out using artificial intelligence?
In reality, in external communication, we only see a very small part. But I am called on many cases, for internal films or the creation and launch of events. These are not big budgets – around 10,000 to 15,000 euros – but they are put together very quickly and finished quickly. And yes, everyone is satisfied. I really think that many people have not understood the importance of the industrial revolution that is happening. On many small subjects, the level of quality is very satisfactory. And not just in the luxury sector. For my part, I really feel an acceleration over the past six months. I am a witness to it. And there is a whole acculturation that is missing. I also teach the use of AI, and the new generation is still little interested in it, in concrete terms.
The book gives many examples of what is already being done…
Yes, the goal is to give a more global image of the use of artificial intelligence. Its integration is vertical and it really irrigates all layers of the sector. Whether for fashion design, production, customer relations, personalization… AI does not replace the creator but gives more creative scope, and reduces costs in prototyping. These new developments can go so far as to change the business model. For example, before, for certain luxury pieces, you had to order and wait six months for delivery. Now you can bring the product to life before receiving it. You create a virtual part on an e-commerce site and the customer can have a relationship with it until it is received. The relationship with the product can be worked on throughout the duration of the product's manufacture. This relationship is very popular with Generation Z, because it represents a luxury that I expect. The brand can communicate a photo of the leather, the materials, and create a whole storytelling on the follow-up of the product. When the customer receives it, they have already dreamed of it, and have already created a bond with it. He attached himself to the product more firmly.
While ChatGPT is two years old, and there is a lot of talk about AI, how do you explain this awareness?
I think we are still only seeing small swirls of the tsunami that this constitutes. There are fears, but I don't agree at all with the disastrous side of AI. It was already there before, with the algorithms. Machine learning is not new… I think that awareness depends on the fact that managers realize that they can take control of this tool. Young creators are making it their own. And it’s a shake-up in the industry, at every level. But there is a lot of slowness, because not everyone is necessarily in this culture of avant-garde innovation. But in luxury, it lands on a lot of projects. We can cite the Mandarin Oriental hotel which implemented it to save on waste and waste. AI can be used to archive fashion and create reissues. We realize that it has very concrete and financial applications. We can see Imki who used it to create capsule collections, or Jonak too, soon. It will also help in trend predictions, data analysis to predict trends in textiles, materials, colors. By compiling the data, it can see weak signals that humans do not see, and thus ensure that creation is not based solely on human intuition.
What obstacles do you see?
In my opinion, they are mainly of two orders: legal-ethical and ecological. For the last one, we will have to question the CSR policy. To date, I have not yet seen any studies that compare the results of the use of AI compared to a shoot with several people who travel for the same result, or whether or not putting this data to work costs more expensive than humans taking a plane. Nothing has yet been demonstrated and brands may be afraid of bad buzz. The second element is that AI can lead to breaking the codes. Some brands already set limits, such as L'Oréal, which does not create characters to demonstrate the benefits of its products. Then, it will make it possible to reinvent the grammar of a brand, this can be very interesting in the case of succession of creators for the same brand, but it can be scary. Luxury brands have always been trendsetters, in cosmetics, fashion shows and have always pushed avant-garde, eccentricity, which may seem ridiculous at one moment, but turns out to be a classic 20 years later . And AI can open Pandora's box. So we will have to question the consistency with the brand's DNA or the danger in terms of reputation. The important thing is to keep meaning in what we do. Do not work with AI out of necessity, just because it will be cheaper by replacing people. But indeed to unleash the potential of this tool, which can prove to be extraordinary.
