Gartex Texprocess India 2026: How AI is reshaping textile and fashion manufacturing

Artificial intelligence (AI) is unlikely to eliminate human judgement in fashion and textile manufacturing. Instead, by offering faster, richer, and more real-time insights, it could fundamentally change how decisions are made, enabling the industry to respond more quickly to shifting market demands and increase efficiency. These were some of the key takeaways from the opening panel of the recent textile fair in the capital, Gartex Texprocess India 2026.

The panel, “From Forecast to Factory: How AI and Consumer Signals are Reshaping Apparel Manufacturing,” had industry representatives from the textile industry discussing their views on how AI is positioned more as an enabler for the industry than a replacement of humans.

Puneet Dudeja, Partner, The Knowledge Company LLP, said that the role of AI will be helpful for companies—whether in manufacturing or any other segment—to make decisions that might otherwise be prone to error. “AI will bring efficiency to decision-making. At all levels, AI is transforming the way we think about decision-making. At our company, we worked on something called a decision framework and conducted multiple workshops around it. This framework tells you which decisions should go to AI and which should not,” he said.


There are certain decisions where human judgement remains very important, Dudeja said. “For example, in my industry, manufacturing, knowing which signals to act upon is extremely important. Which signals do you look at? That judgement still comes from people,” he said.

Adding to his chain of thought, Nimish Dave, Founder, Idea Smith, said that there are many aspects in manufacturing where AI is accelerating progress, starting from design generation to preventive maintenance, and so on. “However, separating value from hype is really a matter of asking: what gets you the biggest ROI on your investment? The real impact of AI in production is going to be found in planning and in implementing it on the floor,” he said.

While AI gives a lot of data, according to Nitin Kapoor, CEO & Co-founder, IBA Crafts, human intelligence is still necessary to apply to the tasks at hand. “Apart from decision-making, one also has to use their intelligence to validate the data that is being presented, the dashboard, and what it is showing to you and whether it is correct or not. Based on that, decisions are made,” he said.

According to Shivansh Kansal, Vice President (Strategy), CTA Apparels, AI does have the potential to change various parts of the industry, but it is limited by a few things. “Firstly, they can confidently tell you an answer that is wrong. Secondly, their inability to learn by themselves. Lastly, the memory part. For an AI system to truly impact our industry, it needs to overcome these challenges. Many companies are working towards that,” he said.

Talking about some of the benefits for the retail brand, Bhavay Purthi, Senior VP-Ecommerce and Product Management, Libas, said it previously took significant time to create a new style, analyse data, and derive insights. “Now, because all our checkpoints are integrated, AI gives us insights within three days of a launch on impressions, clicks, and conversions. We are asking the AI systems to identify the trends that are relevant for e-commerce. All these logics are defined in the system, which then tells us what we can expect. So, we have been able to speed up decision-making with the help of AI, and we believe it will help us optimise further in the future,” he said.

Besides such insights, the three-day event showcased conversations where industry experts, technology innovators, and thought leaders explored the ideas, technologies, and market shifts shaping the future of textile and denim manufacturing. With over 190 exhibitors and a strong presence from India and international brands from China, Japan, Singapore, Italy, Germany, Taiwan, Turkey and Hong Kong, the exhibition reflected the breadth of innovation across today’s textile and denim manufacturing ecosystem.