By BoF Studio
An increasingly popular use-case for the technology is in creating and altering static and moving imagery on product display pages (PDPs), whether to shorten production windows and improve team efficiency or to alter the content entirely through generative AI.
Pixel Moda is an e-commerce content production company that specialises in AI-assisted and AI-generated imagery and videos — either using AI to guide teams in the photo studios to optimise their efficiency and direction, or for full virtual productions with digital models. To date, the company has powered product imagery for over 900 brands and some of the largest multi-brand retailers, reducing production costs by 70 to 90 percent while increasing sales 5 to 15 percent.
On stage at BoF VOICES 2025, Gianni Serazzi, president of Pixel Moda, was joined by Fabrizio Cardinali, chief executive of Italian fashion brand Etro, to unpack this opportunity in a conversation moderated by BoF’s commercial features director Sophie Soar.of 10 years of BoF VOICES.
OXFORDSHIRE, United Kingdom — Artificial intelligence (AI) is transforming e-commerce, from optimising search and product discovery through to redefining the production of digital fashion content.
An increasingly popular use-case for the technology is in creating and altering static and moving imagery on product display pages (PDPs), whether to shorten production windows and improve team efficiency or to alter the content entirely through generative AI.
Etro was an early adopter of AI, starting with their Spring/Summer 2024 “Nowhere” campaign, which was an entirely AI-generated collaboration between creative director Marco De Vincenzo and digital artist Silvia Badalotti.
In recent years, the brand has further embraced AI through its partnership with Pixel Moda, embedding the technology into its e-commerce content production. In the last 12 months, Etro has grown its e-commerce business by 46 percent.
Between 2022 and 2030, e-commerce is expected to see up to 11 percent annual growth across Europe, and 7 percent in the US, according to BoF and McKinsey & Co.’s The State of Fashion 2026. This growth will be driven — and dominated — by those optimising the shopping journey to help the end consumer reach the products they want in the most convenient way possible.
“There’s always some new technology that pops onto the market, and everybody talks about it. But I don’t see it in my P&L, I don’t see it in my day-to-day work, or how it is radically changing my business. So, we have to think about how we identify those areas where it can actually transform my business,” said Serazzi on stage.
While 92 percent of organisations say they will increase investments in generative AI, only 1 percent say their deployment of AI has reached maturity, according to The State of Fashion 2026 report.
Now, BoF shares key insights from the conversation at BoF VOICES 2025.
Augmenting human capabilities through AI-assisted creativity
Fabrizio Cardinali: I personally believe that AI makes us stronger. In the world of luxury, the human element must always remain at the centre. People don’t fear AI itself — what they fear is the absence of the human touch. That’s the moment when discomfort sets in.People don’t fear AI itself — what they fear is the absence of the human touch.
— Fabrizio Cardinali, CEO of Etro
This is why I constantly challenge my team — especially the younger ones, even my daughter — to study and to keep learning. Because when you study, you build a strong foundation. And with that foundation, you can benefit from AI.
[It’s about how] we can reallocate people to do other stuff, where they’re investing in their brains much more compared to what they used to, in the past, when they were doing repetitive tasks or tasks that quite easily can be done much better with AI.
Gianni Serazzi: Think about how many extra resources you can have for campaigns, for editorials, for a lot of other marketing activities where AI today is not working well. […] It’s really using this technology together with the human that allows you to transform your business today.For AI-assisted [production], where AI talks to the teams to help them take pictures on a real model with a real photographer, with a real stylist, so much more efficiently, you still have the humans — the photographer that’s taking a picture on a real human person. You still have [the model] get into the pose. But you have the human and the technology working together to ensure superior quality to what humans can do and tremendous efficiencies.
Leveraging technology to protect brand DNA
FC: Over the past couple of years, we have performed extremely well — growing [Etro’s e-commerce business] by nearly 50 percent. We didn’t achieve this by pushing harder, but by working smarter.
We have been leveraging AI to plan media investments more effectively, enhance product descriptions, support translations and generate creative assets. We can now produce creative content at a speed that was previously unimaginable.
GS: What we do is train our AI — especially the AI assistant — for each specific brand. We never shoot one brand the same way we shoot another. We believe we actually respect and preserve the brand DNA even more effectively than just using human input alone.
In fact, one of the largest luxury brands in the US used one of our PDP images and ended up featuring it in Vogue, The New York Times, and running a major campaign with it. They did that because they recognised their brand DNA in that image.
Customising content to optimise market resonance and reach
GS: We have tested repeatedly [the benefits of featuring] three pictures to five, then to seven and even 11. We added one video, then two, and each time, we saw the conversion rate increase and the return rate [decrease].
It’s really using this technology together with the human that allows you to transform your business today.
— Gianni Serazzi, president of Pixel Moda
Now, the question is how to make it more personalised. With the generative AI component — meaning the AI that modifies the image itself, rather than just guiding the team — you can do today things like [indistinguishable] body swaps. For instance, you can show Asian models to Asian consumers. We know this drives significantly higher sales.
FC: Looking ahead, our content will become more personal and far more expansive. We’re planning to have videos, potentially for every single SKU. This was something that used to be impossible due to cost — not just for a mid-sized company like ours, but even for the bigger players.
This new way of working is definitely going to help us engage more effectively with our customers — especially with new ones. And hopefully, in this challenging time for our industry, it is going to be a successful asset that will help us [better] navigate it and [pull] through.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity. This is a sponsored feature paid for by Pixel Moda as part of a BoFpartnership. Credit: businessoffashion.com
