Mckinsey’s 2026 fashion report says more than 45% of global apparel brands now use ai design tools…
mckinsey’s 2026 fashion report says more than 45% of global apparel brands now use ai design tools in daily work, and asos rolled out a generative ai toolbox that saved designers 75-80% of the time on core design processes after upskilling over 100 of them. ai turns a sketch into a photorealistic garment render with fabric drape before a single sample is cut.
the argument that ai kills fashion creativity died the day brands adopted it as infrastructure.
Context
McKinsey and BoF's State of Fashion 2026 (BoF, Nov 17, 2025) says fashion players have made progress with generative AI on routine tasks, with more than 35 percent of executives already using it in areas such as online customer service.
ASOS said on Feb 3, 2026 that it upskilled more than 100 designers in generative AI with Fermat, whose technology is embedded in its design operations (ASOS; Retail Week).
The ASOS upskilling of more than 100 designers matches ASOS and Retail Week. McKinsey's excerpt read says more than 35 percent of executives use generative AI in functions such as online customer service, not 45 percent of brands using AI design tools daily, and the 75 to 80 percent time saving was not seen in the sources read, so unsupported here, not refuted. in the excerpts read. The sketch-to-render claim was also not seen in the sources read, so unsupported here, not refuted. 'Died the day brands adopted it as infrastructure' is the author's.
Related work
Watch next
- Find the 45 percent design tools figure and ASOS's time-saving number.
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Provenance
The note above is reproduced unedited from the original post, first published on Threads on 1 October 2026 at 20:36 IST. Sources are the papers and datasets the note draws on.
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