AI’s place in the advanced textiles industry

“Technology is a great way to attract the young talent that the industry needs,” says industry consultant, Paige Mullis. As moderator for “AI Unspun: Beyond ChatGPT in the World of Advanced Textiles,” she divided the discussion into five parts for the panelists assembled at the Emerging Textiles presentation on the show floor, asking them how AI will impact industry integration; creativity; sustainability; human jobs; and new, innovative materials development.

Jim Joyce, Chairman of the Board, Pleneri Inc., started by saying that the textile industry is “really backwards,” and AI’s role is to turn that into a virtue “It will be of use in every stage of the data stream. It won’t displace anything; it’s going to be very additive,” Joyce says. 

Manu Venkararamu, COO, InfoPine, says AI can be a big help. “With better data, demand planning can more accurately identify and plan for market pricing, as well as better understanding seasonal demand variations,” Venkararamu says. 

Anirudh Sharma, a researcher in MIT’s Media Lab, sees great potential for integrating AI in the design process. “For example, a company takes doodles, sketches from designers or artists. They license the art, then they can offer these ideas to clients to choose the style they want.” AI can also help with the “difficulty of addressing both aesthetics and functionality,” because getting the data needed “can be a huge strain on human resources,” he says. 

“Industrialized economies are in trouble if AI doesn’t take over some of the work,” Joyce says. With low birth rates, there are just simply more older people. “If you play this out, there aren’t enough people to get jobs done,” he says.  

Sharma expects that sensors will be embodied into everyday fabrics. “AI will be able to monitor your speech and bio-markers—a sign of mental degradation in my voice, for example—can be analyzed in real time,” Sharma says. However, “these models are not for large companies; they’re located right where they provide the information to the person.” 

“Human touch is very important,” VenKararamu says, “but AI will make humans more efficient.”