Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2026

Publication Title

International Journal of Fashion Design, Technology and Education

Keywords

artificial intelligence, AI literacy, fashion education, toolkit development, Bloom's Taxonomy, design thinking

Abstract

With the rapid adoption of AI in fashion merchandising, there is an increasing need for students to develop AI literacy to meet evolving industry demands. However, higher education faces challenges due to limited discipline-specific pedagogical practices, insufficient student training, and a lack of AI-integrated curricula. Grounded in Bloom's Taxonomy Revisited and IDEO's 3I design thinking framework, this study introduces the #AIforfashionedu toolkit–a how-to-guide toolkit comprising AI-integrated learning activities. These activities were qualitatively implemented in three fashion merchandising-related courses at U.S. institutions. A total of 195 student reflection papers were collected, analysed, and evaluated using a thematic analysis approach. The findings indicate that integrating AI into fashion merchandising activities can enhance students' higher-order cognitive skills related to AI literacy while underscoring the importance of a “human-in-the-loop” approach for responsible AI use. This study contributes to AI-integrated pedagogical research in fashion merchandising and offers actionable guidance for future educational implementation.

Funding Source

This article was published open access thanks to a transformative agreement between Milner Library and Taylor & Francis.

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

DOI

10.1080/17543266.2026.2688309

Comments

First published in International Journal of Fashion Design, Technology and Education (2026): https://doi.org/10.1080/17543266.2026.2688309

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