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Levi’s Katia Walsh on AI: You can do a lot with 168 years of data

Dr. Katia Walsh, Chief Strategy and AI Officer at Levi's, is looking to combine fashion, data science and the creative process to improve everything from the customer experience and demand to supply chain and design.

Levi's is best known for its denim, but the company's master plan is to redefine itself with artificial intelligence, machine learning and data science. And the apparel company has 168 years of data to become more efficient, predict and create trends and improve the customer experience. 

ZDNet caught up with Dr. Katia Walsh, Chief Strategy and AI Officer at Levi's, to talk about implementing AI, machine learning and data science at a 168-year-old company during a pandemic. Here are a few highlights. The full conversation is in the video.

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In the case of Levi's all the products that the company has created and manufactured in the past 160 years are data. The Bing Crosby jacket that he wore in Canada is data. Once it's photographed, and that photograph is digitized, that's data. The Einstein jacket that he was photographed as man of the year by Times Magazine in 1939 that we created a replica of in the past year, that's data. So we are now using images of products to predict demand for new products based on using computer vision that can tell us based on similarity between certain products that have been sold in the past new products that have never been sold, what the demand for new products would be. So the opportunities are absolutely endless when it comes to data and Levi's. 

We are absolutely predicting right now what demand for products will be like. The further you go into time, the less accurate the model will be because there are just so many unknowns that happen to accumulate as time goes by. And we are looking to predict demand in the next half of the year, in the next month, in the next three months. 

The role of algorithms in product design. Walsh said: 

Well, product design is a very creative process. I've worked in financial services, I've worked in telecommunications, I've worked in technology. This is my first time leading AI and helping drive digital transformation in the creative company, in a fashion company. It is incredibly creative. It is a highly imaginative process. What we are doing is partner with designers, partner with planners, planning is the original data science function in a company like Levi's and retail and apparel, and bringing the latest tools and this combination, this flywheel of digital data and AI to be able to drive demand, to predict demand, to optimize costs, and to also really deepen the connection with consumers.

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See the full story here: https://www.zdnet.com/article/levis-katia-walsh-on-ai-you-can-do-a-lot-with-168-years-of-data/