In an age shaped by artificial intelligence, craftsmanship is becoming more than a method of production. It is becoming a new marker of value, care, and desire.

While the heat of Rome was getting the best of me, I stumbled across a store window I couldn’t ignore. It was the end of May, tourists were filling the city, and after buying my first supplì ever, I was looking for a place in the shade where I could sit.

By the side of the Pantheon, I found the perfect spot, covered enough to avoid melting and empty enough not to feel overwhelmed by the crowd in the square. And as I looked around, trying to take in as much as I could from my view, my attention was soon caught by a specific window.

On my right, there was a store presenting a very unique slogan: “Designed by humans, worn by legends.” To me, it felt like a playful advertising strategy. Despite not being the first “made by humans” ad I had come across, something in me told me to take its picture anyway, because I knew it would eventually become something I would return to.

Fast forward to now, while studying for my LVMH certificate, when the course presented a very interesting reflection that immediately took me back to that window.

According to the Group’s learning path, an experiment suggested that, from a design perspective, when people did not know the creators of an item, they tended to favour designs made by AI. The reason was that the machine could predict customers’ preferences more accurately and create accordingly. That said, once the information was revealed, almost all participants shifted to the other option, favouring the products made by humans instead.

“Human-made” is a label that is spreading quickly across different domains. Beyond clothing, graphic design appears to carry similar connotations. One of the most recent debates surrounded the production of images connected to the sequel of The Devil Wears Prada, which many people initially thought looked AI-generated, before they were later confirmed to be the work of a real artist.

As dystopian as it may sound, human-made is becoming a characteristic of its own. It stands for craftsmanship, care, realness and, most importantly nowadays, something that can no longer be taken for granted. Its growth across different fields tells us exactly what renewed value people are now giving to craftsmanship.

With the ever-growing implementation of AI in the fashion industry, people’s perception of what is worth their money is rapidly changing. While AI is granting faster production and more personalised online experiences, people also realise that bigger scale is usually a synonym for less exclusivity. AI may enable brands to move more rapidly and cross new boundaries, but one of its main risks is creating an outside perception that feels cheaper.

If clothes and designs were to be made entirely with artificial intelligence, what would lead customers to buy from one specific brand over another?

After all, if you, as a brand, did not make the item yourself, why would I, as a customer, spend my money specifically on you? If a label were to become too technologised, it would lose part of its tangibility and historic heritage. Its magnetic factor would be compromised and replaced by something that feels too available.

As of 2026, this is not yet the case, because houses are very much aware of the impact that replacing human craft would have on their sales and public image. This is why both brands and people are now pivoting towards a redefinition of craftsmanship.

If AI is used to increase speed and sales, artisans’ skills curate a project from its roots, making time one of the most valuable assets a person is acquiring. When people are used to products made in series, created and sold primarily for profit, they tend to care much more about something whose birth they can follow, something that feels as though it has been made especially for them.

With the interference of artificial intelligence, craftsmanship becomes a new standard for care, quality and, on a monetary level, wealth. An AI product might be perceived as saying, “I put in the prompt and it did the rest,” while a human-made item seems to say, “I cared for it throughout every second of its making.” Neither of these is an entirely accurate definition of the two different processes, but they both represent surface perception, which, at the end of the day, is what matters.

Many people have already had a taste of AI, and for many, it has become associated with speed, convenience and shortcuts. Therefore, when it comes to luxury clothes, customers do not want to spend thousands of dollars on something they feel was created through one.

While luxury encompasses more than monetary value alone, transcending the physical realm, in 2026 it still finds itself tied to one essential expectation: that what people pay for must carry labour, time, intention and a trace of the human hand.

Written by Rebecca Krizman for Q Voice by QEditorial Magazine

QEditorial Magazine — Fashion · Culture · Identity QEditorial.com