At this point, if you believe the hype, AI is the answer to everything. Climate crisis? AI. Creative block? AI. Broken washing machine? Probably AI. And now, apparently, AI is the secret weapon that’s going to fix fashion’s circularity problem.
Let me just say this: I love a tech girlie moment. I love innovation. I want tools that make sustainable design easier, waste data trackable, and supply chains less sketchy. But the way fashion is currently screaming “AI will save us!” without actually explaining how feels very... Metaverse circa 2022. All buzz, no blueprint.
Right now, AI is being introduced across fashion’s back end, from predictive analytics for stock management (so brands stop overproducing) to automated waste sorting, AI-generated garment design, and carbon impact modelling. In theory, all of this could help fashion get smarter, faster, and more circular. Less overstock, less landfill, less guessing.
In practice? It’s already getting messy.
Most brands don’t really understand the tech they’re investing in. They just know it makes them sound future-forward. Throw the words “AI-powered” and “circularity” in the same sentence and suddenly it’s giving innovation, even if you’re still selling 700 polyester units a day.
Let’s take predictive analytics. The idea is that AI will help brands “anticipate demand” more accurately, meaning they’ll only produce what’s actually needed. Sounds good, right? But most of these algorithms are trained on old sales data from a system that was already broken. So we’re actually using yesterday’s trends to predict tomorrow’s needs, while acting like the algorithm is remaining neutral. Which spoiler: it’s not. And quick rant, but I feel conflicted because as a christian, we are led to believe, in faith, never to predict the future as it's left up to God. So no matter how quickly AI predicts what's coming, no robot is better than my God. On period. Extreme tangent but you get the point.
Then there’s AI in design, where tools are used to generate “sustainable” garments. But what does that even mean if the design is cute but the materials are trash and the workers still aren’t paid properly? You can’t algorithm your way out of exploitation. At best, you could make it less visible.
Even the Digital Product Passport systems being hyped right now (which I actually support) are leaning into AI. Brands are working with AI tools to auto-track materials, calculate impact scores, and spit out sustainability claims. But without independent regulation, who’s checking the data? Who decides what counts as “low impact”? You guessed it, the brand. So I could be making 1000 products a day, wasting 60% of them but as long as the materiality is eco-conscious, as a brand I'm just going to omit the waste so it looks good. You see my point?
So is AI helping circularity? Potentially. But only if we treat it like a tool, not a solution. You still need real people with climate literacy and cultural awareness to design those systems. And you still need to pair it with actual accountability, not just better green PR.
For emerging creatives, it’s a weird one. On one hand, AI tools could help small brands design smarter, reduce waste, and build digital supply chains without corporate budgets. On the other hand, if you’re not tech-savvy or plugged into that world, it’s easy to get left out of the conversation completely. And technically for a small brand, although it's great to get into the habit of measuring and tracking, on such a small scale, it's not really necessary.
But it's important that we continue to be part of that conversation. Because if fashion’s future is being built with AI, and none of us are in the room helping shape what “sustainable” means in those systems, we’ll end up with another industry built on extraction, just with prettier dashboards. So no, AI won’t save fashion. But if we use it right, and don’t let the suits run wild with the buzzwords, it might just help us waste less, track more, and build better systems.
But only if we code in care, not just efficiency.