A note from Karin & Liya
At the much-anticipated Google I/O conference, much of the conversation was about… shopping. Universal Shopping Cart, AI agents, shoppable YouTube and smart glasses all pointed to the same trend: AI is increasingly becoming the layer between consumers and commerce.
Closer to home, we noticed a similar shift at The Fashion Masterclass event. While it was not a technology event, discussions around buying, merchandising, media and brand building all included a technology angle. A year ago, conversations around AI in fashion still felt experimental. Today, terms like AI agents and agentic commerce barely raise an eyebrow.
Google I/O 2026: Commerce Moves Into the AI Layer
Google's announcements at I/O 2026, its annual developer conference in Mountain View, California, were among the strongest signals yet that shopping is moving beyond websites and marketplaces into AI-powered environments.
Universal Shopping Cart
Google introduced a Universal Shopping Cart that works across Search, Gemini, YouTube and Gmail. Think of it as a “smart shopping cart”. Rather than manually tracking products across multiple sites, users can add items into one shared cart that follows them across Google's ecosystem. The system can monitor price changes, alert users when products come back in stock, and optimise payment options.
AI Agents
Google also announced new agentic shopping capabilities. AI agents will be able to monitor products, track inventory, surface recommendations, and eventually complete purchases on behalf of users within predefined limits. Shopping is gradually shifting from a search-and-click experience toward a conversational and delegated experience.
Searchable + Shoppable YouTube
Google is bringing checkout directly into YouTube. Consumers will be able to discover products through video content and purchase without leaving the platform. This further blurs the line between content, discovery and commerce.
Smart Glasses Return
Google unveiled its Android XR smart glasses platform with fashion partners Gentle Monster and Warby Parker, while Gucci was confirmed as a future partner. The partnerships signal a growing recognition that wearable technology needs fashion credibility, not just technical capability, to reach mainstream adoption.
What This Means for the Middle East
AI is becoming a new layer between brands and consumers. As discovery moves from search results to AI recommendations, GCC brands will need product data, content and digital storefronts that AI systems can easily understand and surface.
The Luxury Closet Leans Into Live Commerce
The Luxury Closet, a Dubai-based luxury resale marketplace, announced on its Instagram page that it will begin hosting live shopping sessions on Trofee, a livestream commerce platform best known for collectibles and trading cards.
This is not The Luxury Closet's first experiment with live selling, but it appears to be a bigger commitment to the format.
We have been watching the live commerce space for some time and wrote about this trend back in February (Article: Why Live Commerce Wins in the Age of AI Slop). While China remains the global leader in livestream shopping, the format is also gaining traction in Western markets through platforms like Whatnot and TikTok Shop, which have grown rapidly by combining entertainment, community and commerce.
Luxury resale is a particularly natural fit for livestream shopping. Purchases often involve questions around authenticity, condition, provenance and styling, making real-time demonstrations and direct interaction valuable trust-building tools.
Live shopping has yet to gain meaningful traction in fashion across the GCC. The Luxury Closet's latest move suggests the format may finally be on the cards for the region.
In Focus: The Fashion Masterclass and the Evolution of Fashion's Commercial Functions
Earlier this month, we attended the second edition of The Fashion Masterclass presented by Jelizaveta Kozlova in partnership with Dubai Design District (d3), which brought together executives from across luxury, retail, media and fashion.
While TFM was not positioned as a technology event, AI and technology appeared throughout discussions on PR, media, merchandising, customer experience and brand building.
One of the clearest examples came from a fireside chat moderated by Liya with Erin Kiona Thomson, founder of Nurvana and former buying and merchandising executive at LVMH, SSENSE and HYPEBEAST.
Erin described the buyer's role as part data, part instinct. Great buyers develop pattern recognition across trends, consumer behaviour and cultural signals, alongside an "aesthetic muscle". AI has the potential to enhance this process by bringing deeper analytics to a function that has traditionally relied on experience and intuition.
The conversation also explored entrepreneurship in the AI era. Erin shared how founders can now build and iterate faster than ever using AI across research, content creation and product development. One of our favourite quotes from the session was: "Tech is my co-founder."
Read our full event recap on here.
May ✨ Events we attended
FashionTech Coffee Meetup
Our May FashionTech coffee meetup brought together founders, operators and fashion professionals from across the ecosystem.
A highlight was Kahina's (The CFO Diary and one of our OG community members) reflections from both the Vogue Business Global Summit in Chantilly and the Financial Times Business of Luxury Summit. Discussions touched on the evolving luxury consumer, AI's growing role across operations and marketing, and how brands are navigating a rapidly changing retail landscape.
Read Kahina’s full report here.
Art Dubai
Art Dubai once again demonstrated how closely art, technology and culture are becoming intertwined.
A project that stood out to us was DNA of Oud, created by Siddhartha Kunti in collaboration with scent researcher Sissel Tolaas. The work translated the molecular composition of oud into a visual and digital experience, creating an intersection between scent, data, science and art.
The Global Art Forum featured Before and After Media, a discussion with Sarra Alayyan and Fady Nageeb from Dazed MENA, the regional edition of the British culture, fashion and lifestyle publication. The conversation explored the relationship between print and digital media in a rapidly changing media landscape and how magazines continue to remain relevant in the post-digital age. The speakers also discussed the representation of Arab culture and the importance of creating platforms that reflect regional perspectives and creative voices. The session offered insights into the opportunities and challenges facing contemporary publishing today.
VivaTech Paris, 17-20 June
VivaTech has become Europe's largest startup and technology event, bringing together startups, investors, corporates and policymakers across AI, commerce, consumer technology and emerging innovation. This year's edition marks its 10th anniversary and is expected to attract major technology announcements and global industry leaders.
Event website: https://vivatech.com
Pitti Uomo, Florence, 16–19 June
Returning to Florence this June, Pitti Uomo remains one of the fashion industry's key global meeting points for brands, buyers and creative innovators. Beyond menswear, the event increasingly reflects broader conversations around materials innovation, sustainability, manufacturing and the future of fashion business.
Event website: https://uomo.pittimmagine.com/
Maison Safqa and the Rise of Saudi Off-Price Retail
Liya recently wrote for Gems of Arabia about Maison Safqa and the emergence of off-price retail models in Saudi Arabia. The piece explores how this flash-sale platform is gaining traction in the Kingdom, how its founders navigate changing consumer behaviour, and why this category presents a significant opportunity in the KSA compared with more mature global markets.
Read the article here.
Luxury Is No Longer Owned. It's Performed.
Karin recently explored how luxury consumption is becoming increasingly performative, shaped by visibility, identity and digital culture. The piece examines how ownership is evolving in an era defined by social media, resale markets and changing consumer behaviour.
Read the full article here.
What We're Watching - The Mo Show
In this episode, Princess Noura bint Faisal Al Saud's conversation on the future of Saudi fashion offers one of the most detailed discussions we have heard about the Kingdom's evolving fashion ecosystem.
What stood out was the emphasis on infrastructure rather than aesthetics. The conversation explored everything from funding and manufacturing to tech packs, supply chains and global retail expansion. Princess Noura argues that building a successful fashion ecosystem requires treating fashion as a serious industry, supported by capital, operational expertise and long-term planning rather than simply focusing on runway moments.
Watch the full episode here.
Director / Head of AI & Business Transformation
SUMWON STUDIOS | Dubai
SUMWON Studios is hiring a senior leader to build an AI-native operating model across the business. The role sits at the intersection of fashion, data, AI, product, marketing and operations, reflecting how technology is becoming embedded into modern fashion infrastructure.
CRM & Loyalty Director
Sephora Middle East Careers | Dubai
Sephora is hiring a CRM & Loyalty Director to lead customer loyalty strategy across the region. The role focuses on customer data, personalisation, analytics and omnichannel engagement, highlighting how loyalty programmes are increasingly becoming technology and data businesses.
Director, Transformation Governance
Chalhoub Group | Dubai
Chalhoub Group is hiring a Director of Transformation Governance to help oversee large-scale business transformation initiatives across the organisation. The role focuses on aligning strategy, operations, technology and execution, reflecting how major luxury groups are increasingly investing in enterprise-wide transformation as AI, data and digital infrastructure become central to how retail businesses operate.
Closing Thoughts
We will be taking a short summer break from our Coffee & FashionTech series and will return in September. In the meantime, we would love to hear from you. If you attend an interesting conference, discover an emerging startup, come across an innovative technology, or have insights worth sharing with the community, please reach out. We are always looking for relevant stories, events and perspectives from across the fashion, luxury and technology ecosystem that we can feature in future editions of FashionTech Middle East.
Follow us on LinkedIn and Instagram to stay updated… and if you’re building something exciting in FashionTech, we’d love to hear from you.
Until next month,
Karin & Liya
Co-Founders, FashionTech Middle East
