On 20 March 2026, Prada launched its Jordan Wolfson collaboration campaign and audiences immediately accused it of being AI-generated. The controversy crystallised before Prada's clarification that AI was used only in post-production. This report analyses the episode as a structural case study in AI Image Governance: the gap between AI as an internal creative tool and AI as a public-facing brand deliverable. The analysis covers the Prada Group's financial inflection (net revenue €5.7 billion, +9%), the Versace integration, Miu Miu's +35% growth, and the governance imperative facing the group.

This report maps, case by case, how the leading luxury brands and groups are deploying artificial intelligence, and articulates the distinction the sector has not yet formalised: AI as a backstage tool versus AI as a public-facing brand deliverable. Covering fourteen brands, five conglomerate frameworks, and 36 specialist sources, it includes the Gucci/Demna AI campaign controversy as the sector's most consequential governance failure to date.

The global personal luxury goods market closed 2025 at an estimated €358 billion, down approximately 2% from 2024. Behind that number: the industry lost roughly 60 million active consumers since 2022. This report analyses the structural conditions driving that contraction across twelve dimensions. The central conclusion is that this is not a cyclical correction. It is a structural inflection point.