The Year AI Campaigns Went Public
In the early days of the AI shift, fashion brands had experimented with AI tools behind the scenes for a few years, primarily for moodboarding, workflow efficiencies, and early concept development. But 2025 marked a big shift; we saw major global brands publish full-on AI-generated campaigns, out in the open, consumer-facing, and actually impressive.
Mango has been one of the clearest examples of this shift. Their AI campaigns were impressive in 2024, but there were still markers of the technology’s limitations at the time, like lighting and model-background integration.
But now looking back at 2025, their visuals had become far more refined, so polished, in fact, that without the “AI generated” label, many consumers would likely assume they were created through traditional production methods.
This rapid improvement has intensified ongoing debates about transparency. While many European brands now choose to label their AI content, partly in anticipation of upcoming regulation, the industry as a whole remains divided on whether tagging is necessary, beneficial, or even sustainable as realism continues to increase.
Campaigns vs. PDP: Two Different Realities
While AI has quickly proven its strength in producing campaign and lifestyle imagery, applying it to product detail pages is still a more complex challenge.
A handful of brands, including Mango and Forever 21, are beginning to experiment with fully AI-generated PDP assets, but widespread adoption remains slow. The reason is multifaceted: accurately capturing fabric, fit, drape, and texture at a product-detail level is significantly harder than generating an atmospheric campaign shot; many brands are still navigating internal policies around the use of AI. As Thomas pointed out, some AI-generated PDP images may already be in circulation, just not labeled.
Campaign imagery, meanwhile, is evolving rapidly because its purpose is different. A campaign doesn’t need to depict every stitch perfectly; it needs to communicate identity, mood, and brand values.
The Rise of AI “Slop” (and How to Avoid It)
Not every AI campaign this year has landed smoothly. J.Crew learned that the hard way when they dropped an untagged AI campaign and caught immediate backlash, not because the images looked bad, but because people felt blindsided. The internet quickly did what the internet does, dusting off its favorite insult for anything AI-related that feels off: AI slop.
Katrine put it perfectly during the session: “I hope we move away from just shouting ‘AI slop’ at everything simply because it’s AI.”
And she’s right. The issue isn’t that consumers hate AI; they just hate feeling misled. If the content looks good and the brand is upfront about how it was made, most people don’t mind and some even get excited about the possibilities (even our annual E-commerce Visual Trend Report showed this to be true in our consumer survey).
But when AI is used without context, or when it feels like a shortcut instead of a creative choice, audiences pick up on it instantly. The takeaway is pretty simple: people are fine with AI as long as it’s done well and brands are honest about it. Transparency and intention matter just as much as the visuals themselves.
What Brands Are Feeling: Pressure, Urgency & Real Expectations
In a market survey conducted by Pixelz, brands reported increased pressure to adopt AI:
- A little over 60% feel heightened pressure from management
- About 50% feel increased pressure from customers
The reasons driving adoption: Efficiency.
Brands are looking for:
- Workflow efficiency in ideation and creative processes
- Better storytelling or higher-performing visuals
- The ability to create more content, not necessarily cheaper content
But here’s where things get interesting. While a lot of the hype around AI has focused on cost-cutting and automation, Thomas pointed out that this simply isn’t what most brands are experiencing in reality.
“Most companies have such a dialed-in production pipeline that saving money is rarely the result,” he explained. And it makes sense: big retailers and fashion brands have spent years refining incredibly efficient photo production systems. Swapping in AI doesn’t suddenly break the cost curve.
What AI does do is open up entirely new creative possibilities. It lets teams explore concepts they never had the budget, time, or resources to attempt before. It speeds up ideation. It boosts output. It gives brands the freedom to tell richer product stories or build out worlds that would have been impossible or just insanely expensive to shoot traditionally.
But what it doesn’t do is eliminate effort. You still need creative direction, technical skills, post-production, brand oversight, and people who understand fashion deeply enough to avoid uncanny valley moments or off-brand visuals. If anything, AI introduces new types of work: prompting, refining, art directing synthetic worlds, and building internal standards around consistency and accuracy.
So rather than replacing teams or slashing budgets, AI is functioning more like a multiplier, expanding what’s possible, not erasing the work required to get there.
Predictions for 2026 (and Beyond)
1. Video Will Have Its Breakthrough Year
We’ve seen rapid progress in image generation, but video still lags behind. Expect that gap to close.
“Video needs better quality and control, but we’ll see major advances in 2026.” — Carlos
Pixelz is already exploring image-to-video workflows for next year.
2. A More Mature Industry Conversation
2023–25 was the era of hype. 2026 will be the era of strategy.
“I hope we move away from ‘throw AI at everything’ and toward more mature conversations about where AI actually makes a difference.” — Thomas
Brands will integrate AI thoughtfully, not reactively.
3. A Blurring Line Between PDP and Campaign Content
Expect PDPs to look more editorial, more expressive, and more dynamic.
“We’ll see PDP visuals with a much stronger sense of being campaign-like.” —Thomas
AI enables richer product storytelling without requiring a full production reset.
So How Do You Keep Up?
Everyone can feel a little behind, even the experts. So here’s how to stay up to date in 2026:
- Follow the right people. And if you need a starting point, we’ve rounded up the top industry voices in our AI Movers and Shakers list.
- Read constantly and right here on the Pixelz blog is the perfect way to get started.
- Watch demos and breakdowns (Did you know we have a whole video library of webinars, past FLOW keynotes, and more!), including this webinar recording.
- Track what leading brands are actually doing with Campaigns, PDP, and just Visuals in general. Following Katrine on LinkedIn is the best way to stay ahead of the latest on Brands using AI.
- Test tools hands-on: Find the latest tools and play with them. Get a feel for what’s possible, it might unlock something for you! Here are the tools Carlos highlighted in the session: Adobe Firefly, FLUX, Nano Banana, and Seedream.
Lastly…
This webinar closed not just Content Creation Week, but our entire year of virtual and in-person events. From all of us at Pixelz: Happy New Year and here’s to a transformative 2026.