In a recent interview with Stanford Graduate School of Business, Chanel CEO Leena Nair, the luxury brand’s second female CEO and its first Indian head, shared her experience exploring the potential and pitfalls of artificial intelligence (AI) for the luxury industry. During a visit to Microsoft’s headquarters in Seattle, Nair and her team interacted with ChatGPT, OpenAI’s powerful AI tool, and encountered an unexpected reflection of AI’s implicit biases. “ All Men in Suits” Nair, a British-Indian executive and Chanel’s CEO since 2021, was joined by her leadership team in experimenting with ChatGPT.
Curious about how AI might represent Chanel’s senior leadership, Nair asked ChatGPT to generate an image of the Chanel team visiting Microsoft. The response? An image filled with men in suits—a stark misrepresentation of Chanel’s actual workforce, which is composed of 76% women, including Nair herself as CEO. As Nair humorously noted, “This is what you’ve got to offer, ChatGPT? Come on.
” The incident highlights ongoing gender biases embedded in AI technology. Even though Chanel’s workforce is predominantly female, the image generated by ChatGPT failed to represent this reality. Nair expressed concern, emphasizing the need for AI tools that align with and respect Chanel’s organizational diversity and ethos.
“This is Chanel. Yes, 76% of my organization is women. Ninety-six percent of my clients are women,” she noted, underscoring how the company’s .
