Luxury and artificial intelligence might be seen as incompatible: on one hand, heritage, distinction, and the long term; on the other, automation, speed, and standardization. But while some industries are being disrupted by generative AI, the luxury sector is harnessing it and redefining the models of creation and distribution for the future, according to Olivier Reynaud and Rudy Lellouche, co-founders of Aive.
Where AI is accepted: performance, precision, discretion
Contrary to alarmist claims, the luxury sector is not lagging behind on AI. It is moving forward “slowly but surely”: on average, each House has deployed fewer than two AI use cases, out of twenty analyzed, and no single use case has been adopted by more than 30% of the Houses. This restraint is not a lack of ambition but a rejection of technological fascination within the luxury sector. Any innovation that threatens authenticity or exclusivity is ruled out. The luxury sector thus reminds us that uncontrolled innovation destroys more value than it creates.
Today, a majority of Houses have adopted or tested AI-based sales forecasting tools, while others use it for inventory allocation or to generate personalized content to strengthen customer relationships. AI is also being used to refine segmentation and better understand consumer expectations.
According to projections, approximately 30% of employees’ working time in Europe and the United States could be automated by generative AI by 2030 in the luxury sector.
This automation primarily affects marketing, operations, and back-office functions, but largely spares “signature” creation. The luxury sector adopts AI when it enhances precision, efficiency, and intimacy with the customer, while remaining invisible and serving the human vision.
Creation: the line the luxury sector refuses to cross
Less than 5% of creative processes incorporate AI, and this is a strategic choice: no House considers AI a substitute for the Creative Director.
Experiments focus on three specific objectives: broadening sources of inspiration, facilitating the visualization of concepts, and accelerating certain technical stages.
However, some fashion houses are already exploring innovative creative uses. Jacquemus used generative AI to create visual content, notably a campaign where giant bags appeared to be wandering the streets. Similarly, Prada Beauty integrated AI into a campaign reinterpreting images of its fragrances via a visual generator. These campaigns reveal that AI can generate spectacular visuals. But the strategy behind these creations remains too subtle and thoughtful to have been conceived solely by a machine. The staging, the narrative, and their integration into the brand identity require a nuanced understanding of the audience and the codes of luxury that only human intuition can orchestrate.
In the luxury sector, creativity cannot be delegated to a machine.
AI plays an amplifying role, designed to enhance the creative capacity of teams while remaining under human supervision. It becomes a tool for augmentation, never an autonomous actor in the artistic vision.
An inevitable acceleration, but under strict conditions
Caution does not hinder the acceleration of AI; it structures it: luxury houses are ramping up their experiments, with more than five new applications already underway or under consideration, and adoption rates set to double rapidly.
This momentum is accompanied by a shift: the challenge is no longer to produce raw generative AI, but to deploy tools capable of analyzing content (images, voices, emotions, scenes), organizing data that is difficult to exploit, and automating processes without diminishing creativity. AI now offers controlled variations, measures performance, and amplifies expertise. It is a technology that supports human decision-making, never a substitute for it.
At a time when the attention economy is flooding platforms with standardized content, the luxury sector is taking a different path. It prioritizes discreet, controlled AI aligned with a strong, human-centered creative vision. The challenge is not to delegate creation to machines, but to build a demanding collaboration between artistic intuition and technological power.
Far from being a risk-averse sector, the luxury industry is, on the contrary, rigorous in its choices regarding innovation. By protecting its heritage while experimenting with new tools, the luxury industry is charting a course that could inspire all creative industries: that of disciplined, responsible, and human-centered artificial intelligence. What if, ultimately, the future of creative AI were to be built precisely where we refuse to let it impose itself as the sole protagonist?
Read more > [COLUMN] The sophistication of the invisible: luxury in the age of agents
Featured photo: Andrej Lisakov/Unsplash
Olivier Reynaud is a born entrepreneur. He launched his first startup at age 21, before co-founding Teads in 2010, where he invented the “outstream” format and the famous inRead. Within a few years, Teads became the world’s leading video advertising marketplace, with 1,000 employees across 40 countries. In 2019, he co-founded Aive with Rudy Lellouche.
Rudy Lellouche is a hybrid professional with expertise in both technology and business, specializing in AI, product strategy, and digital advertising. He founded his first startup while still in preparatory classes for engineering school, and went on to mentor numerous entrepreneurs—including some of the leading figures in the French tech scene—which led him to serve on the boards of several companies. As co-founder of Aive, he drives the company’s technological vision and leads the Product, R&D, and AI teams. As the creator of MGT (Multimodal Generative Technology), a proprietary engine that is revolutionizing video post-production, he harnesses artificial intelligence to drive performance and creativity at scale.
