NC AI Signs MOU With Korea Textile Development Institute for K-fashion AX

NC AI, the artificial intelligence subsidiary of NCSoft, said on Dec. 16 that it has signed a memorandum of understanding(MOU) with the Korea Textile Development Institute and Keimyung University to establish a cooperative framework for AI-based support for fashion companies and talent development aimed at strengthening a sustainable K-fashion ecosystem.

Under the agreement, the three parties will cooperate on cultivating practical fashion-AI talent, building an ecosystem to support AI transformation (AX) among fashion companies, and conducting joint research and information exchanges to revitalize the fashion industry. Through these efforts, the partners aim to strengthen the competitiveness of regional fashion companies based on AI and digital technologies and to establish an industry-academia-research cooperation system for nurturing practice-oriented AI talent demanded by the industry.

In particular, NC AI plans to operate fashion-AI education programs in connection with the Regional Innovation System & Education (RISE) project, led by the Keimyung University Industry-Academia Talent Development Institute and the Department of Fashion Marketing at its College of Art and Design. The company will also expand practical industry-academia collaboration models by offering AI training programs focused on new job roles for both corporate employees and young professionals, utilizing its VARCO Art Fashion solution.

VARCO Art Fashion is a fashion-domain-specialized generative AI solution designed to lead innovative AX in the fashion industry. Trained on professional fashion images, fabric data, and trend datasets, the solution accurately reflects fashion-specific terminology and aesthetics that are difficult for general-purpose AI models to replicate. Designers can generate design drafts using text prompts alone and realistically composite new fabrics or patterns along garment wrinkles. In addition, VARCO Art Fashion enables the mass production of high-quality lookbook and product-detail images with diverse backgrounds and concepts through AI, without the need for live models or studio photo shoots.

The partnership is expected to deliver tangible benefits to both fashion companies and educational institutions. Companies can reduce marketing content production costs by leveraging AI and improve profitability through virtual consumer response testing for products with high inventory risk. In educational settings, students can gain hands-on experience with complex design practices using AI-based design tools without the need for expensive equipment or materials.