In this sense, workforce design is a crucial leadership challenge rather than just an HR afterthought. If administrative work no longer serves as a training ground, companies will need new entry routes — structured rotations, supervised AI use, clearer quality standards, and earlier exposure to appropriate doses of decision-making. Learning models and promotion criteria will also need to evolve to teach and reward skills, like judgment and adaptability, over pure output.
Finally, organizations will need to plan hybrid human and AI capacity together: how many roles are needed and what they are needed for. “Are we going to trim down costs by shedding people, or capture this value by training and using people to do things that we couldn’t do earlier, like spending more time with customers?” says Madgavkar. “If you have a billion dollars of free capacity, how are you going to use it to further the mission for your business? This is the real C-suite leadership challenge.”
Vogue Business launched a five-minute survey to understand how AI is impacting careers in fashion, beauty and retail, open from October to December 2025. It was shared with Vogue Business newsletter subscribers, LinkedIn followers, and directly with 500 industry contacts.
In order to take the survey, respondents were aged 16-plus, and working in the fashion, beauty or retail industries (including employees working in any function, business owners, and freelancers), or a student aspiring to work in those sectors. Among the respondents, 31% were aged 16 to 24; 33% were 25 to 34; 24% were 35 to 44; and 12% were aged 45 and over. Women made up 85% of respondents, while men accounted for 13%, non-binary representatives accounted for 0.8%, and the remaining 1.2% preferred not to disclose their gender.
Those currently working in fashion made up 60% of respondents, while those working in beauty and retail made up 6% and 7%, respectively, and students accounted for 27%. Of the professionals, 37% were business owners or freelancers, while 63% were employees. Of those employees, 41% worked at a luxury company, 26% worked at a mid-level or accessible luxury company, 21% worked at a mass-market fashion, beauty or retail company, and the remainder worked across fashion councils, agencies, media companies, higher education and more.
Those working in marketing, PR and communications represented 48% of employees, followed by 10% in creative direction or content creation; 7% in merchandising, product development and buying; 6% in fashion or beauty product design; 4% in sales or commercial; 4% in business operations and project management; 2% in supply chain and logistics; 2% in tech, digital strategy and innovation; and the remainder worked across HR, customer service and client relations, finance, legal and compliance, data and analytics, photography, hair and makeup, styling, modelling, talent agencies, editorial, and education.
The survey was shared with a primarily Western audience. Among the respondents, 37% lived in the UK; 14% in the US; 13% in France; 6% in Germany; 6% in Italy; and the remaining 24% consisted of those living in Australia, New Zealand, India, the UAE, the Philippines, Iran, Pakistan, Bangladesh, China, Japan, Türkiye, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, the Netherlands, Croatia, Ireland, Cyprus, Latvia, Kosovo, Belgium, Denmark, Greece, Canada, Colombia, Peru, Argentina, Venezuela, South Africa, Uruguay, Brazil, and Mexico.
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