How a Chinese AI start-up helps Nike, Gap, Urban Revivo predict fashion trends

Chinese start-up Hangzhou Zhiyi Technology applies artificial intelligence (AI) in apparel design and production, helping famous brands like Nike, Gap and Urban Revivo predict the next fashion trend.

Founded in 2018 at fast-rising Chinese technology hub Hangzhou, capital of eastern Zhejiang province, Zhiyi Tech is focused on compiling style and sales data from major shopping and social-media sites around the world, providing clients with data-driven analysis of fashion market trends.

Zhiyi Tech founder and CEO Zheng Zeyu said in a Post interview last Friday that his company’s expertise helped Chinese fast-fashion retailer Urban Revivo, a client since 2020, increase its opportunities to create bestselling items by 5 percentage points in the first three years of their partnership. Urban Revivo typically churns out more than 100,000 designs each year.

According to Zheng, Zhiyi Tech also enabled Urban Revivo to improve its sell-through rate – a measure of the inventory sold during a specific time, compared to the amount of stock received from suppliers in the same span – to 80 per cent from 60 per cent over the same three-year period.

The start-up’s operations reflect how increased AI-related activity in mainland China has convinced more enterprises to adopt the technology and transform their industries.

With government support via favourable policies and mandates, the domestic AI market is expected to be worth 5.6 trillion yuan (US$780 billion) by 2030, according to data from state-backed investment bank China International Capital Corp.