Navigating the promise and peril of an AI future in the fashion industry.

Artificial intelligence is big, scary, exciting and more than just a little undefined.

Its promise encompasses almost everything. A world of abundance and ease? Sure. The end of civilization? Maybe.

Even the more likely middle ground could be profoundly transformative for the fashion industry as designers, store managers, lawyers, truck drivers and more all negotiate work life with — what? — AI colleagues?

The language to describe this future doesn’t exist and so it’s all still so hard to fathom.

But there are some signs suggesting what comes next, history that’s instructive and many, many questions that together offer a starting point, perspective on where AI is today and where it’s going. Get your thinking cap on.

Big, transformative and technologically driven change is something the world has been living through for 250 years.

The McKinsey Global Institute recently drew a line from the development of steam power in the 1770s to electricity in the 1880s, computers in the 1970s, the internet in the 1990s and, finally, AI today.

“General-purpose technologies can transform economies and improve lives, but realizing their full potential takes more than the invention itself. It requires complementary innovation, new infrastructure, new rules, capital and people and organizations willing to change how they work,” McKinsey said in a recent report on the AI economy.

It took 100 years for steam to hit its peak share of per capita GDP growth of 30 percent. Electricity hit 10 percent of GDP after 40 years.

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