This week, a look at how AI is beginning to be used in fashion curricula, the “critical thinking gap” forming among fashion students, and what effect this will have on the industry’s talent pipeline.AI is already touching many parts of the fashion industry, on both the consumer and business sides. But not everyone is happy about that development.
In recent weeks, there have been a number of incidents where commencement speakers at college graduations mentioned AI and were met with jeers and boos from the students in attendance. Much of that negative reaction is motivated by the sense that AI is going to eliminate jobs just as new graduates are about to join the workforce, a supposition supported by Yale researchers.
Glossy spoke to several fashion educators from fashion design schools about how this dynamic is playing out in fashion, how AI is being used in the classroom and what the talent pipeline looks like in fashion, since the graduates of today will be the leaders shaping the industry tomorrow.
For Jason Schupbach, the new president of FIT, managing students’ expectations regarding AI is just one part of a larger shift he sees in the field: Creative careers are undervalued. Schupbach cited FIT’s own data, collected in recent months through broad surveys and released this week, showing that 87% of Americans believe the cost of higher education is a barrier for students in creative industries. Similarly, 71% of U.S. adults say AI has made it more difficult to find employment in creative industries.
