I am no professional to speak on Ai but let’s be real, there’s been a lot of mixed emotions about artificial intelligence, and I’ve been on this emotional roller-coaster as well. It’s here, a reality that has formed part of our daily lives in a way that is unavoidable now. Even as I write this, Co-Pilot, Microsoft’s Ai assistant, keeps popping up to give me its thoughts instead of letting my human efforts suffice. It’s annoying, sometimes an undeniably great help, but still, not human, and that bothers me.

I realized that as someone who’s been an early adopter of things (and liker of things), I needed to educate myself at least to the extent of what the expectations are in the market and it appears that some people still haven’t quite connected or accepted this virtual reality where nothing, in fact, is real.

Fashion brands like Novodonna, advocate not just for your personal style (as a woman, if you are a woman reading this) but your spirit as a woman. It’s important to me what you think about the content we publish; from the models in our clothes to the points of view or initiatives we associate with – we want you to relate to our very human approach to story-telling. I’m afraid that Ai doesn’t provide this intimate relatability but is just another playground for perfection we didn’t need to continue for another decade. P.s. Please give us a break to be ourselves, evolve at a human pace and make mistakes necessary to how God intended.

The irony is that we’ve just entered an era of women embracing and connecting with their real selves: girls going natural, girls going make-up free, girls finding their own personal style, girls speaking up (GIRLS SPEAKING UP!) and showing the world through the help of social platforms (digital and non-digital), that it’s okay to have flaws and to reframe, define (or even defy) beauty standards on their terms.

Earlier this year I used Ai in my business to save costs by testing our clothing on virtual models, trying best to prompt the most South African, “real” looking women technology could produce. Honestly, the results were good, but I still felt like I was compromising what was real: using real people in our marketing. How is it that we preach ‘true identity through style’ when we don’t portray it with a human being? Couldn’t be right.

I am still conflicted about making the transition to fully adopting Ai into Novodonna where it truly matters. I am okay with adopting it for internal use to make life a little easier – in fact, it’s an excellent tool for productivity but I cannot quite connect with it replacing real people. To give you, dearest consumer, an idea of a typical shoot investment: time, studio hire costs, photography costs, model costs, transportation and catering costs – this, just to get good images of our products. Whereas Ai produces the images for you in a few prompts within seconds from the comfort of your PC. Who can compete with this? Who wants to compete with this? I remain conflicted and anchored to my belief in human-produced. I beg.

I am truly interested to know what you think about Ai in fashion? Do you mind it? Does it make you feel insecure? Is it okay in some industries and not in others? I’d love to know. Let’s have that conversation.

All my love,

Donna