The impact of AI has been felt across industries from Hollywood to publishing – and now it’s come for modelling. H&M announced last week that it would create AI “twins” of 30 models with the intention of using them in social media posts and marketing imagery if the model gives her permission.
In a statement, Jörgen Andersson, the chief creative officer at H&M, described the idea as “something that will enhance our creative process and how we work with marketing but fundamentally not change our human-centric approach in any way”.
The retail giant has worked with successful models including Vilma Sjöberg and Mathilda Gvarliani, who model for Vogue and brands including Chanel. As part of the agreement, each model would be able book her twin on shoots for other brands – meaning they could, in image anyway, be in two places at the same time. Speaking to The Business of Fashion, Gvarliani described her replica as “like me, without the jet-lag”. Images of AI and human, side by side, look scarily lifelike.
The news has been greeted with dismay by the wider industry, which fears this could be the start of a shift. It mirrors the concerns of Hollywood workers who went on strike in 2023 over the use of AI in film and TV. This is not the first time a major fashion company has explored AI models – Levis and Hugo Boss have also experimented with the technology.
Bectu, the union that represents the creative industries, explained the concerns. “Even if models are compensated for the use of their image, it is hard to see how using technology will not have a significant detriment to other fashion creatives and industry workers, from make-up and hair, to rigging and lights,” said the head of the union, Philippa Childs. A survey found that 54% of Bectu workers believed AI would have a negative impact on the fashion industry.
Those advocating for models have also raised concerns. Sara Ziff, the founder of Model Alliance, says: “There are a lot of open questions, and one of them is about compensation. What does fair compensation for a digital twin look like?” H&M has said each model would be paid when their twin was used, with the fee negotiated with their agency.
In 2020, the model and founder of technology education company WAYE, Sinead Bovell, wrote an article in Vogue titled ‘I Am a Model and I Know That Artificial Intelligence Will Eventually Take My Job’. She raises the issue of the lack of regulation. “If a model gives their consent to use their likeness somewhere, it can enhance the actual AI model, the data centre that the company uses, which could accelerate automation,” she says. “There’s all these nuanced ways that models may get even more exploited.”
Guard rails are being built. The Model Alliance’s Fashion Workers’ Act comes into law in June – a piece of legislation which requires consent from models for AI usage, when working with agencies based in the state. “It couldn’t be more timely,” says Ziff. “With H&M’s announcement, it gives a lot of other industry players licence to move forward in a way that could be very reckless and damaging.”
In addition to this, the AI Act will be introduced in the EU in 2026, requiring AI images to be labelled as such (H&M said it would use a watermark on images featuring AI).
Ziff is clear that she is not “anti-tech” and there are big players in fashion who have embraced advances in technology.
The former Harpers Bazaar editor Lucy Yeomans founded Drest in 2019, a game that allows players to dress up avatars in designer brands. However, the use of AI is limited. “It would be lovely if AI could create all the looks,” says Yeomans, “but if JW Anderson decides he is going to put a belt halfway down the skirt, AI says: ‘Belts don’t go halfway down skirts’.”
High-profile models such as Sjöberg and Gvarliani will likely be compensated well – casting agent Chloe Rosolek estimates they would be paid “millions” – but AI is likely to directly threaten models who more typically feature in e-commerce shoots that showcase products on brands’ websites. “Most models have had to deal with job loss already and this is a whole other frightening thing for them,” says Rosolek.
Ingo Nolden, who is Gvarliani’s agent in Germany, agrees: “There is the erosion of human work especially at the entry level,” he says. He had negotiated a deal for an AI version of a model he works with in 2023, only to back out “because I felt it was giving the licence out to a third party I have no control of”.
Lalaland AI creates AI models, and has clients including Zalando and Levis. Michael Musandu, the founder, says the technology allows consumers to see a more diverse “casting” when they look at a website. “As a person of colour, I never got to see models that represented this diversity or inclusion perspective,” he says.
He argues the amount of shoots that big brands produce means it would be difficult to implement this change using real models.
AI is not always a tool for inclusivity, of course – in 2023, Shereen Wu, a Taiwanese-American model posted on social media that her image had been changed so she looked white.
While Musandu says criticism of AI models is “warranted”, he downplays its impact. “Brands are going to continue to use real models,” he says. “This is supplementing … there is a cost-saving element, you can produce this content at a much more affordable price.”
Rosolek describes H&M’s AI shoots as “another capitalistic approach to cut people, to cut their costs and increase their profits”. Profit may be on the company’s mind. In financial results for the first quarter of 2025, they missed expected growth, with Reuters describing its start to the year as “sluggish”.
An H&M spokesperson responded to concerns with the following statement: “While we understand that this will spark opinions, discussions, and uncertainty, we are humble in acknowledging that we do not hold all the answers at this point.
“We will continue to explore with other creatives within the industry to see what generative AI can bring to any creative process, while ensuring we maintain our human-centric approach.”
Rosolek hopes the development “is a massive flop” with consumers. “Models make an image incredible and I don’t think that can be replicated through AI,” she says.
Yeomans agrees. “If you think of someone like [photographer] Steven Meisel, he was always discovering that next model, and everyone would ask, ‘Oh my gosh, is that beautiful?’ ‘Oh yes, it is beautiful’,” she says. “I’m not sure whether AI will be able to look around the corner and predict what might be next.”
