The European textile industry in transition: Change must not come too late

Europe’s tex­tile indus­try is fac­ing a his­toric turn­ing point. For decades, the con­ti­nent led the world in tex­tile engi­neer­ing, design, and sus­tain­able pro­duc­tion. But grow­ing geopo­lit­i­cal ten­sions, dis­rup­tive tech­nolo­gies, and tighter reg­u­la­tion are threat­en­ing this lead­er­ship – and with it, Europe’s future com­pet­i­tive­ness. The choice is clear: invest now, col­lab­o­rate now – or risk becom­ing irrel­e­vant in a fast-evolv­ing glob­al mar­ket.

AI as a catalyst for transformation

Arti­fi­cial Intel­li­gence is no longer a the­o­ret­i­cal con­cept. It’s already dri­ving rad­i­cal change across the tex­tile val­ue chain:

• Mar­ket­ing & sales: AI enables trend pre­dic­tion and per­son-alized sell­ing strate­gies, enhanc­ing plan­ning and cus­tomer reten­tion.
• Sup­ply chain: Ear­ly risk detec­tion, dynam­ic inven­to­ry con­trol, and real-time opti­miza­tion boost resilience and respon­sive-ness.
• Mate­r­i­al inno­va­tion: AI devel­ops new fiber struc­tures, simu-lates aging process­es, and accel­er­ates time-to-mar­ket.
• Sus­tain­abil­i­ty: It cal­cu­lates car­bon foot­prints, auto­mates ESG report­ing, and facil­i­tates scal­able cir­cu­lar strate­gies.
• Pro­duc­tion: Real-time error detec­tion, adap­tive con­trols, and qual­i­ty mon­i­tor­ing enhance effi­cien­cy and reduce waste.

Research Matters – But Entrepreneurial Action Decides

Sci­en­tif­ic progress is crit­i­cal – but it is entre­pre­neur­ship that turns poten­tial into impact. The future belongs to deci­sion- mak­ers will­ing to embrace risk, chal­lenge con­ven­tions, and lead trans­for­ma­tion from with­in.

We need what we call the “entre­pre­neur­ial pok­er” – the bold com­mit­ment to rethink mar­kets, deploy tech­nolo­gies, and in-novate busi­ness mod­els. With­out that courage, even the best research will remain irrel­e­vant.

Insights from the KI Expert Forum

A key source of inspi­ra­tion is the KI Expert Forum – a cross- sec­tor ini­tia­tive of entre­pre­neurs, sci­en­tists, and for­ward- thinkers devel­op­ing action­able strate­gies for a dig­i­tal, com­pet-itive Ger­many. Many of its rec­om­men­da­tions can be direct­ly applied to tex­tile regions such as South­west Sax­ony or North­ern Italy – with trans­for­ma­tive poten­tial.

Europe has the poten­tial for a tex­tile renais­sance – but it will only mate­ri­al­ize if tech­nol­o­gy, entre­pre­neur­ship, and pol­i­cy align with deter­mi­na­tion.

Change is com­ing. The ques­tion is: Will we shape it – or be swept away by it?

Down­loads: