Artificial intelligence in apparel could lead to nearshoring

The use of artificial intelligence (AI)-style'sewbots' that can replace human sewers and other robotics look set to transform the apparel supply chain and facilitate reshoring or near-shoring to developed countries currently reliant on lower income outsourcing hubs, maybe thousands of kilometres away from buyers. Online merchants and small new brands owned by millennials are already driving reshoring by claiming it involves a lower environmental footprint through reduced transport and less inventory waste. Palaniswamy'Raj' Rajan, chairman and CEO of Softwear Automation, based in Atlanta, Georgia, US, whose sewbots can manufacture t-shirts in a fully automated process, warned that major and more established brands will remain "laggards not leaders" in technologically-driven reshoring. They will wait for a critical mass to develop reshored production, before taking the plunge and disrupting established supply chain routes to market, he predicted. But, stressed Rajan, the artificial intelligence (AI) technology that can deliver this vision is becoming available for the apparel sector: "Our sewbots take cut fabric pieces as input, then put them through a series of automatic steps, and output a finished t-shirt," he told Just Style. He explained that software automation technology is a combination of "proprietary advanced robotics, computer vision, AI, and IoT [internet of things] technologies" enabling on-demand production at scale.