Lectra launches AI-driven product development platform

French technology group Lectra has launched Apogy, a cloud-based platform that applies agentic artificial intelligence to fashion product development. The company describes it as the first solution to combine AI agents, product data and design processes in a single digital environment, covering the phase between garment design and production.

Lectra, known for CAD and PLM platforms including Modaris, ModarisPGS and Gerber AccuMark, said Apogy marks a new stage in a business built around digitising patternmaking and product development over nearly five decades.

According to the company, Apogy uses AI agents to automate routine tasks and support decision-making throughout the development cycle. Teams can generate design concepts from prompts, sketches or images, collaborate in real time with full traceability of changes, and use 3D simulation and rendering tools for digital prototyping and approvals.

"Agentic artificial intelligence gives us the opportunity to take a new step forward and reinvent product development as a whole," said Maximilien Abadie, deputy chief executive of Lectra.

The platform is designed to centralise product development data so that internal teams, partners and suppliers can work from a single, continuously updated source, which Lectra said should speed up approval and production stages. It also aims to preserve internal expertise by making it more widely accessible across an organisation.

Early users include Irish sportswear brand O'Neills and Italian fashion group Oniverse, which owns Calzedonia, Intimissimi and Tezenis. "This harmonisation eliminates errors linked to data transfers, increases transparency and now enables us to accelerate operations," said David Towell, senior manager at O'Neills.

Lectra said Apogy is the result of three years of development in consultation with several dozen customers, and will be delivered as a continuously updated SaaS platform, with further AI capabilities planned.