How AI will change the fashion industry

Fashion Innovation Award 2019 focused on mature FashionTech start-ups who apply Artificial Intelligence to enhance different parts of the Fashion value chain. Out of over 100 applicants from across the world, 34 start-ups made it to the long list and 12 finalists, coming from Switzerland, different EU countries and the Silicon Valley, were invited to pitch in front of the jury. Now – Loomish SA, a Swiss investment advisory firm specialised in Lifestyle Tech, announced the winners. Two of them have a connection to Switzerland.

Yosh.ai (Warsaw, Poland)

Yosh.AI uses Artificial Intelligence through a personal shopping advisor. The machine is taught not only about the users, but also about the ways of giving personal advice and providing inspiration for the user. Today Yosh builds virtual Advisors, in chat, but most importantly in voice versions, which are the future form of communicating between retailers and users. The Yosh team is strongly supported by Google.

Next to the award, Yosh.ai received an additional prize: 1 year of office space and Swiss market-entry consultancy from Lugano-based Fondazione AGIRE.

SPOTT.ai (Aalst, Belgium / Zurich)

SPOTT.ai is a successful MarketingTech company transforming any visual content into an interactive, inspirational and shoppable experience no matter the screen & platform. They use AI and machine learning tools to do the latter in a scalable manner and impact ROI. With one clear dashboard brands and retailers get action-oriented insights into the content strategy.

The company is based in Belgium and has an office in Zurich. The Zurich team is responsible for operations and business development in the DACH region.

iCoolhunt/Nextatlas (Turin IT, London UK)

As a first mover in the use of artificial intelligence for predictive monitoring of emerging consumer trends, the company developed Nextatlas, a data platform leveraging proprietary algorithms and AI methodologies to detect new trends likely to become mainstream 

Exchange with C-Level executives from leading brands

The winners and the finalists gave a good overview of how AI will change the fashion industry. The event offered a perfect opportunity for networking between start-ups and executives. Jelena Tasic Pizzolato, Head of Strategic Marketing, Loomish SA stated: “We at Loomish are extremely pleased by the level of start-ups we were able to showcase at this year’s Fashion Innovation Award. They are all mature companies, with numerous international clients and important revenues, and we are pleased that they generated a lot of interest among the fashion managers that attended the event. On the other hand, we are very proud to have had several C-Level executives from Sergio Rossi, Bally and Microsoft among others, which for us in an important indicator about the readiness of the industry to embrace innovation.”