Technology News
The Best of BoF 2025: Technology
Artificial intelligence made its presence felt across the industry, influencing how consumers shop, how brands create content and how fashion businesses operate behind the scenes.
By :BoF Team
30 December 2025
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Artificial intelligence wasn’t just the hottest topic in technology again this year — it’s become bigger than ever, to the point that it’s reshaping the US economy.
AI has inevitably rippled through fashion, too, as brands prepare for it to transform everything from their back-office operations to how their products are discovered and purchased online. Investors, determined not to be left out, have resumed pouring money into fashion-tech ventures, while startups are launching fashion-specific shopping agents and chatbots in hopes of competing against technology giants building general-purpose tools.
In some cases it’s yet to be seen exactly what impacts AI will have and how quickly, though one area where it’s already having visible effects is marketing and content creation. H&M announced it would partner with models to create digital twins that could be used in AI content, framing it as a way to responsibly engage with the rise of AI-generated models. Other brands like Valentino have begun using AI content on social media — and sometimes facing consumer backlash for it (at least when people notice).
But AI wasn’t the only technology to affect the fashion industry this year. Smart glasses are finally catching on after more than a decade of false starts, while millions of fashion products now carry digital identities as brands ready themselves to comply with European regulations in the years ahead.
Next year is bound to see more activity on all these fronts as the fashion industry, like the world around it, is increasingly shaped by innovation.
