AI moves into fashion’s C-suite

As fashion navigates economic uncertainty and technological disruption, the C-suite is being redrawn. Artificial intelligence is no longer confined to design studios or marketing dashboards, it is now reshaping executive leadership itself.

At Kering, CEO Luca de Meo last week appointed the group’s first chief digital, AI & IT officer, Pierre Houlès. His mandate is to reinforce the group’s digital strategy and fast-track the overhaul of its technology infrastructure, aligning it with Kering’s operational and innovation goals. The role is designed to embed technological advancement at the core of the business, supporting both performance and the creative appeal of its houses. Similar AI-focused leadership roles have emerged at Ralph Lauren, Lululemon and Marks & Spencer in the past two years, according to Business of Fashion (BoF).

The rise of the AI chief signals more than experimentation. As Paula Reid of executive search firm Reid & Co. told BoF, AI is impacting “every piece of the business,” requiring elevation at the highest organisational level. Increasingly, companies are recruiting from tech-heavy sectors to fill these posts, reflecting the scale and complexity of implementation.

Rise of AI leadership roles

Crucially, AI leadership is being structured to avoid siloed execution. Yvonne Pengue of Spot On Minds noted to Business of Fashion that these mandates are “transversal,” spanning marketing, supply chain, merchandising and communications. By combining AI with digital and data oversight, brands aim to ensure organisation-wide adoption rather than isolated pilots.

Executive reinvention in fashion is part of a broader shift in retail leadership profiles driven by digital disruption and new growth imperatives. Retail executives increasingly need digital fluency, with 71 percent of industry leaders surveyed expecting consumers to increase their use of generative AI in shopping, and are prioritising strategies that strengthen digital commerce and omnichannel experiences as core drivers of growth. Retailers planning for the future are focusing on loyalty programmes (46 percent), digital channels (45 percent) and seamless omnichannel offerings (44 percent) to capture market share and revenue in a fragmented consumer landscape. These shifts underscore why strategic growth and commercial leadership roles are rapidly emerging as organisational priorities, according to research from Deloitte.

Meanwhile, companies such as Gap Inc. are leaning into cultural relevance, appointing entertainment-focused executives to integrate fashion with media, music and sport - an acknowledgement that growth is increasingly tied to storytelling and consumer engagement.

Taken together, these evolving titles: AI, growth, entertainment, point to a common priority: placing the consumer at the centre of strategy while equipping organisations for structural change. For fashion businesses, AI is no longer just a tool. It is becoming a governance issue, and a defining competency of the modern executive suite.