Fashion’s pandemic-era tech infatuation has passed, and consumers and companies are once again ready for human touch. As generative artificial intelligence is surging and brand budgets are shrinking, this sets up a poignant tension between the automated and the authentic in 2025.

Fashion-tech projects will prioritise business basics, chasing tools that save time and money: think personalisation at scale, automated curation and digital shortcuts to market physical goods. Consumers will respond to tech that blends in, with analogue and retro-seeming products and experiences enjoying more screen time. Both will continue to push back on digital-only products and experiences, instead preferring a merger of the digital and physical.