Continuing our exploration of our Luxury Insights Report into Art, AI and the Future of Creativity is Country & Town House Editorial Director
Lucy Cleland, who reflects on how AI can be harnessed to deepen personalisation, enhance transparency, and open up new creative possibilities – without compromising the essential human touch at the heart of true luxury.
From algorithm-generated Delft tiles to blockchain-backed provenance, Lucy’s reflections highlight both the vast potential and the complex trade-offs that lie ahead. Writing from the perspective of a B Corp business, she also considers the environmental implications of AI and the importance of integrating sustainability and social responsibility into any future-forward strategy.
"The excitement around AI and luxury goods is that it will enable personalisation at scale, as well as help combat waste and help brands be more transparent around their supply chains and authenticity..." writes Lucy Cleland.
"I was intrigued recently when a company popped into my inbox that was selling 100 percent AI-generated Delft tiles. Not Quite Past allows users to input something personal to them, say Taylor Swift or Stonehenge, for example, and then Staffordshire Potteries will generate beautiful classic ceramic tiles (at £9.99 each), with your chosen motif, made entirely by skilled craftspeople in the UK. It sent a shiver of excitement through me at the vast possibility of becoming involved with your designs, meaning you have more engagement along the creative journey rather than less. It is a superb example of how humans and AI can work together in a fun and creative way, producing something absolutely unique for the buyer but still retaining human craft at its core.
"However, customers, like brands, will need to educate themselves on AI and its implications, opportunities and threats.
"AI will help both occlude and expose luxury machinations. Brands – who know that the enlightened luxury buyer demands authenticity and increasingly wants to know about the supply chain and labour conditions – should use AI to help them with that transparency story. Technology like Blockchain will allow brands to track every stage of the supply chain, as well help expose fakes far more easily. From the off, brands should integrate AI to enhance transparency, cut down on waste and offer more engagement to their customer with new and exciting touchpoints - but it should never replace that human story.
"Customers should know and feel like there is always a human touch at the heart of the brand – human imperfection will become the new ‘perfect’, as many brands will use AI to iron out the kinks or idiosyncrasies that can actually make something so wonderfully unique.
"AI brings with it – to on extent – the democratisation of luxury (which is an advantage of disadvantage, depending on your brand ethos and values). Class, colour, creed, age and sex are no barrier to this system – there is no need to live in a city (or even a country) where access is easier. Indeed, it removes the need to walk into a boutique that - from its very location or the burly chap standing outside and the eerily emptiness inside - can alienate, purposefully, whole swathes of society.
"Virtual try-ons, walk-rounds of digital showrooms, virtual assistants (a league away from those annoying bots that currently plague so many websites), and excellent after-sales service are all coming down the track fast. However, the elephant in the room we all must confront is that - although we may be singing the ethical and waste-saving virtues of AI - the carbon footprint of the system can be thousands or even millions of times larger than a single search query. This is something that businesses on the road to net zero will have to weigh up carefully.
"As a B Corp business, Country & Town House will be developing its AI policy prudently and through the lens of how we can better serve our audience and enhance our operations, while minimising social and environmental impact. People and creativity are at the heart of a business like ours, and it behoves us to do our due diligence to understand how our decision-making will have an impact not just on our own business but also our suppliers. It needs a transparent, collaborative approach, but there is no point in ignoring it. It’s here and it’s up to us how we interact with it."
Find out more: countryandtownhouse.com
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