Fashion and Beauty Leaders Gather in New York to Unpack AI Adoption

NEW YORK — On May 19, senior leaders from Victoria Beckham Beauty, Proenza Schouler, David Yurman,, Amazon Fashion, Steve Madden and Calvin Klein, among others, gathered at Nine Orchard for an intimate cocktail conversation hosted by The Business of Fashion, to explore how brands are moving from AI experimentation to deployment — and what is at stake when they do.

“LLMs are where consumers are getting a ton of their information, especially younger generations — they’re using ChatGPT and Gemini to do their shopping,” she said. “But for me the question is: what does your experience look like in all of this?” For brands like Rag & Bone, the harder creative challenge begins once LLM optimisation is in place.

According to BoF and McKinsey and Co.’s The State of Fashion 2026 report, more than half of US consumers using generative AI for search are already using it to shop, and 41 percent now trust those results more than paid advertising.

Yet the rapid adoption of AI is creating unease on both sides. Brands are racing to integrate the technology, while consumers are growing more sceptical of it. This tension is reshaping every part of the marketing organisation, from campaign creation to talent strategy.

Butler-Young offered a counterpoint worth sitting with. Consumers are embracing AI to ease cognitive load and filter noise, she noted, but fashion occupies a distinct category.

“Shopping for fashion is different from ordering on Amazon. I’m letting Amazon order my necessities — fashion is visceral. I’m not going to let ChatGPT or Claude choose how I dress or what I want to wear today.” The implication for brands rethinking their funnel is that AI may compress the journey, but the emotional decision at the end of it remains stubbornly human.