AI enabled business decisions that enhance sustainability impact of an apparel and fashion supply chain

This paper highlights the implications of leveraging artificial intelligence (AI) to enhance business decision making that has a simultaneous impact in strengthening sustainability initiatives in the apparel and fashion industry. This paper provides a detailed understanding of how AI implemented for procurement, designing, manufacturing and distribution decisions can impact the state of sustainability in organisations. A threefold approach is adopted to provide academic and industry insights. The first section summarises the existing state of technology and AI in the apparel and fashion industry. The existing literature is reviewed based on focused research issues of apparel supply chain and the AI-based methodologies. The second section focuses on gathering industry insights and summarises the findings from experts across procurement, design, manufacturing, distribution and retail. A qualitative research approach is applied with 11 semi-structured in-depth interviews from 5 high end fashion retailers who have implemented AI in designing, manufacturing and selling. The third section provides a foundation for achieving sustainability goals through AI enabled decision making. Research findings reveal that AI can be leveraged to create three main sustainability impacts in the apparel and fashion industry: (i) waste reduction due to process and material efficiency, (ii) reduced discards due to process improvements and (iii) recyclability.