The Future is Ours, Not AI's, Says Future Snoops

The Rise of Agility and Informed Decision-Making in 2026

As the fashion industry moves into 2026, a new era of agility and informed decision-making is taking center stage. This shift comes after a challenging year in 2025, where economic factors and market conditions forced brands and retailers to become more adaptable. According to Joor's recent white paper, the focus for the coming year will be on strategies that allow businesses to respond quickly and effectively to changing circumstances.

Joor, a leading fashion management platform, conducted a survey that revealed some key insights. A significant 52 percent of brand respondents identified wholesale as their most profitable distribution channel. This finding highlights the continued importance of this model, especially as companies look to optimize their revenue streams.

Amanda McCormick Bacal, Joor's senior vice president of marketing, emphasized the need for real-time insights. "The trends we're seeing—from the resurgence of wholesale as a key driver of profitable growth to the dramatic shift toward in-season buying—demand that brands and retailers have a strategy built on real-time insights," she said.

AI: From Speed to Smartness

Artificial intelligence (AI) is playing a pivotal role in this transformation. Joor reported that the conversation around AI is shifting from being faster to "moving smarter." No longer just a design-centric novelty, AI is now seen as the ultimate engine for achieving both agility and informed decision-making in modern wholesale.

Joor has integrated AI into various processes on its platform. For instance, Joor Studio Services uses the technology to create custom virtual models across different body types, ages, and styles. This allows buyers to visualize fit without the cost and time associated with physical samples. Additionally, Joor's Outreach feature automatically generates personalized introductory messages for prospective retail partners, leveraging data to craft engaging messages.

This evolution of AI is expected to continue in 2026, with Future Snoops predicting that AI will add between $150 and $275 billion to the apparel, fashion, and luxury sectors by 2028.

Introducing Muse: A New AI Agent

Future Snoops, a futures forecasting firm, has introduced a new AI agent called Muse. Built into its platform, Muse is designed to empower creators from research to activation. According to the trends predictor, it acts as an "always-on partner" using proprietary intelligence to "bridge human intuition with machine precision."

Lilly Berelovich, co-founder and chief future vision officer of Future Snoops, posed a thought-provoking question during a webinar on Muse: "What if AI exists specifically to unleash the full spectrum of our imagination—not to replace us, but to remind us how infinite we really are?" She added that the mission is to return humans to their creative essence, making space for curiosity, emotion, and the magic that only humans can feel.

The Creatorship Era: Human Inspiration Meets AI Precision

Alongside the launch of Muse, Future Snoops released its "The Creatorship Era: Human Inspiration meets AI Precision" white paper. This document is billed as a "manifesto for creators to reclaim their vision in the AI age."

Berelovich explained that the creatorship era focuses on what it takes to claim humanity as the ones who get to carve the future they want to be part of. The white paper serves as a declaration, mission statement, and blueprint for this new approach.

Positioned as the essential framework for how the fashion industry should approach AI-driven acceleration, Future Snoops argued that embracing "active creatorship" is critical to securing human relevance and unlocking growth in an AI-dominated landscape. The framework is three-fold: ideate, validate, activate.

Ideate, Validate, Activate

The first phase of the white paper focuses on ideation, moving from "prompt to possibility." Emma Grace Bailey, Future Snoops' director of sustainability, explained that the second stage—validation—moves from data to distinction. This involves asking how to move from relying on historical data to using cultural insight to confirm one's own intuition.

Bailey emphasized that this is not a fear-mongering exercise but a call to action. "If creativity is to thrive in the AI era, we have to step into creatorship," she said. "AI is a tool, like all the other tools that we use, and it will mirror the clarity of your own perspective. It's all about enhancement, not replacement."

The third phase, activation, covers moving from "silos to success." This shift aims to move from a fragmented process where creative intent is lost between departments to a connected one where AI ensures alignment. The goal is to keep the original creative vision intact from concept to shelf.

Real-World Applications

Brands are already starting to leverage these opportunities. Adidas, for example, uses an in-house GenAI tool called Databricks, trained on customer reviews to extract sentiments and improve efficiency by up to 40 percent. Puma also used AI in the development of its Inverse sneaker, which was conceived with AI as a co-pilot.

"Inverse is a deep dive into a new design mindset; our goal was to bridge the human experience with experimental technology," said Scottie Gurwitz, lead product line manager at Puma. "AI doesn't abide by the same rules as human designers—that can help us see things in new ways."

As the fashion industry continues to evolve, the integration of AI and a focus on human creativity will be essential for success in the years ahead.