The use of artificial intelligence (AI) has been a hot topic at the ongoing China International Consumer Products Expo in south China's Hainan Province, where brands are exploring ways to leverage AI in their content strategies and ultimately increase sales.
Raul Pardeilhan, a Argentinian model, actor and filmmaker who has been the face of some of the biggest luxury brands in the world, has been working in China for 13 years and has recently made Hainan his home.
"Hainan has a lot of opportunities. Many fashion brands are in Hainan, because it's a luxury destination for Chinese and also for some foreigners. They are targeting people like me. I'm almost 42 years old next month. They are more mature and they have more capacity to either buy an expensive car or to have a lifestyle to represent luxury brands like that," said Pardeilhan.
But now, even the dream lifestyle and perfect body can be generated by AI, which is disrupting Pardeilhan's industry, so he has decided to roll with the punches.
"I decided to partner up with people that are working with AI in a way that I could leverage, not just my beauty, but my intelligence. I do speak Chinese already, but I'm going to be using also this technology to leverage all the content that I create in translating different languages. So, I think it's such a powerful tool where you can reach more people. And yeah, it's also fun," Pardeilhan said.
Global fashion houses, such as Burberry, Dolce and Gabbana, and Coach, are tapping into the power of AI, as they increasingly realize the advantages of AI ambassadors over human actors.
"AI is a new productivity that we're using both in our marketing campaign, as well as a new way of working to be more accurate in our prediction, to be better at understanding our consumers and creating a strong, successful story ahead of us," said Liliana Lucioni, president of Coach China.
AI can decipher consumer trends and behaviors, offering nuanced data to create tailored content, drive audience traffic, and ultimately, increase sales.
In China, there is no shortage of data to make AI smarter, but analysts say the challenge lies in harnessing high-quality data and using it in an ethical way.
"How do you build a trust-worthy AI with enough guardrails but not overwhelming to make it overly pivot on one side over the other. I think there's a couple of pieces to that. One is the government, the government needs to have standard regulation in place. We're seeing most of the governments are doing that, including the Chinese government. And we also need to have that piece within the industry and also within the company itself. How do I regulate such a technology, what do I need to disclose, what do I need to disclaim to build the guardrails around using that technology?" said Roman Fan, Deloitte China AI Institute Co-Managing Partner.
The 4th China International Consumer Products Expo, which runs from April 13 to 18, has drawn over 4,000 brands from 71 countries and regions. It is China's only national-level exhibition featuring consumer products and the largest consumer expo in the Asia-Pacific region.
AI reshaping future of content creation, sales in China
