PARIS — As luxury brands double down on their history to woo back consumers, Kering chief executive officer Luca de Meo wants to nudge them into the future.
Speaking at the second edition of the Kering Innovation Day event in Paris, de Meo urged employees of brands including Gucci, Saint Laurent and Balenciaga to use technology to improve the design, supply chain and customer experience in luxury fashion.
“My ambition is to complement that natural tendency of the industry to look back with a projection towards the future,” he said in a conversation at Kering headquarters, where 14 start-ups were gathered to present their offerings, alongside industry giants like Google and Snap.
At Kering’s capital market days in Florence, scheduled for April 15 and 16, the executive is expected to unveil a strategic plan engineered to transform Kering into a serious challenger in a lackluster luxury market grappling with consumer fatigue, so-called “greedflation” and economic woes.
Since succeeding François-Henri Pinault as CEO in September, the former Renault boss has hired several executives from the car industry, and he suggested that luxury has much to learn from other sectors.
“[I’m] very also keen to look at things that were done, not in the fashion industry, that we can use here, or sometimes it’s about combining things in a way that has never been done before, and then you create innovation — think about the iPhone,” he said.
De Meo noted that while carmakers spend on average 10 percent of their turnover on research and development, that percentage was closer to 1 percent for luxury groups, despite their historically high margins. “There’s a lot of potential to grow,” he remarked.
Benjamin Bouygues, venture and innovation director at Kering, told the gathering the group wants to focus on three key areas: 3D and AI creativity, business operations and productivity, and reenchanting the omnichannel client experience.
Luca de Meo visits a stand at the Kering Innovation Day 2026 event in Paris.
Andrea Musico/Courtesy of Kering
De Meo was just back from the United States, where he visited the workshop of a famed digital artist in Los Angeles.
“I was looking with a lot of curiosity at the way this gentleman was applying AI to boost the creative process,” he said, making the connection with fashion design. “How can we apply AI to actually help the creative people get better, faster, stronger?”
He also wants to tackle luxury’s chronic overproduction, which he described as costly, inefficient and bad for the environment.
“I’m obsessed with the idea of finding ways to apply technology at the different steps of the supply chain,” he said. “This is a territory where I think we can really make a huge jump as an industry.”
And while human interaction remains central, de Meo is betting on agentic AI to revolutionize customer relationship management.
“Very strong brands are the ones that are able to deliver exactly the same experience, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, and everywhere,” he said.
“I believe that technology can help do that,” de Meo added. “How can we secure that, no matter where you enter the brand, no matter the touch point, you will always get exactly the same experience and story?”
Asked what technology he uses most day-to-day, de Meo said he was a heavy user of messaging platforms. “I think I can run a whole company with my WhatsApp application,” he joked. Now, due to confidentiality concerns, he’s switching to Teams.
“Compared to 20 years ago, because of this technology, you can really do things that are impossible. You can be everywhere at any time. Sometimes it’s a trap, because you get to work all the time,” he mused.
Proving that he’s game to engage with new technologies, he stopped by the Snap stand to try some Snapchat AR filters featuring Gucci and Balenciaga sunglasses. He also checked out start-up Umia’s nail-painting device, which allows brands to offer instant logo manicures, though stopped short of getting one himself.
The scene at the Kering Innovation Day 2026 event in Paris.
Andrea Musico/Courtesy of Kering
