The world-famous clothing brand, Levi Strauss & Co., recently announced its partnership with Dutch digital studio Lalaland.ai to create AI fashion models for their website. The goal is to make the shopping experience more personal and inclusive, by providing the website with hyper-realistic models who are of all ages, body types, sizes and skin tones. This is an important move for the company that is pushing their diversity and inclusion goals and further reflects the importance of representing all individuals who identify with their brand.
Dr. Amy Gershkoff Bolles, global head of digital and emerging technology strategy for Levi Strauss, said about the partnership: “While AI will likely never fully replace human models for us, we are excited for the potential capabilities this may afford us for the consumer experience… We’re thrilled to be partnering with Lalaland.ai, a company… that can help us continue on our journey for a more diverse and inclusive customer experience.”
Lalaland.ai is an Amsterdam-based studio which according to their website, has previously worked with famous fashion brands like Calvin Klein, Tommy Hilfiger and others. Furthermore, the use of AI-generated models has been all the rage lately, with one particular image of a very street-savvy Pope Francis rocking a large white puffer coat leaving social media users and commentators in shock, upon learning that it wasn’t actually real.
However, the decision to partner with AI has also come with a series of tough decisions, as Levi Strauss announced in the same month the news of their partnership, the decision of 800 job eliminations, which amounts to almost 20% of their non-retail and non-manufacturing employees. Similarly, last year the company had to lay off a large number of employees in an effort to cut their operating costs.
Overall, Levi Strauss continues to display a commitment to inclusiveness, diversity and modernizing the shopping experience for their customers with new ways of technology, while being mindful of the challenges that technological advances pose to their workforce.
