By BoF Insights,McKinsey & Company
Publication Date: 2026-01-09 05:30:00
Automation and generative AI are expected to have the most immediate and transformative impact on the way organizations operate, reshaping roles, skills and ways of working at a pace comparable to the disruption caused by computers and the Internet in their early stages of adoption.
Companies across all industries are expected to achieve productivity gains of more than 30 percent through automation and generative AI over the next five years.
Fashion brands benefit from early adoption of AI. Automation transforms many routine tasks, such as customer service and inventory management, freeing up time and resources. Companies like Zalando and Nike use generative AI in everything from image generation to product design and personalization. At Zalando, generative AI was able to reduce image production costs by 90 percent. Agentic AI further accelerates this and offers the potential for autonomous decision making and execution.
However, the progress of global organizations remains uneven….
