Interest is growing in how artificial intelligence (AI) can be used to further boost the booming global textiles market. In 2023 the market was valued at US$1.8trn in 2023, with revenues estimated to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 7.4% from 2024 to 2030, according to India- and US-based market research and consulting company Grand View Research.

Of particular interest, according to Professor Seshadri Ramkumar, a textiles specialist at Texas Tech University, US, is AI’s ability to save time and money through supply chain optimisation.

“By anticipating demand, maximising inventory levels, and streamlining logistics and distribution procedures, AI can improve supply chain management. As a result, the supply chain will be more efficient and enable cost savings,” Ramkumar wrote in a report published in February 2024 by the Advanced Textiles Association, a not-for-profit trade association for the international speciality fabrics marketplace based in Maine, US.

Researcher Yimiao Wu agrees. In a January (2024) blog for Pennsylvania, US-based Carnegie Mellon University’s Arts Management & Technology Laboratory, Wu noted that AI can automate processes such as transportation and packaging while “robotic process automation (RPA), machine learning and the Internet of Things (IoT) [can] optimise warehouse management, product separation and