Jonathan Siboni, founder and CEO of Luxurynsight with Stanislas de Quercize, a giant of the luxury industry

In the latest in our series of luxury industry dialogues, Jonathan Siboni, founder of Paris-based luxury data intelligence specialist Luxurynsight, and Stanislas de Quercize, former CEO of Van Cleef & Arpels and senior executive at Cartier, riff on AI, generational shifts, and the future of the luxury industry. Moderated by LUX Editor-in-Chief Darius Sanai

Darius Sanai: I think it would be interesting to start with AI.

Stanislas de Quercize: Yes, AI is fabulous – it’s not 10 times better, not 100 times nor 1,000 times, but one million times better than our brain. As you know, Jonathan Siboni is a worldwide leader of data for the luxury industry, thanks to artificial intelligence. So it’s vital.

Jonathan Siboni: There’s a lot of bias around AI, and rightfully so as the world is changing quickly, but 99 per cent of what exists today in artificial intelligence is nothing new – it existed 20 or 30 years ago. What has changed is the ability of the interface: to be able to ask a simple question and get an answer that seems human. That has a deep impact on how consumers may interact with brands in the future: they may discuss a certain problem and feel like they’re talking to a human – that is important in luxury. If you were in a different sector, you wouldn’t mind talking to a computer so much, but for us, it’s just not possible.  

However, a lot of the things we are doing with Luxurynsight have been using AI for years: the technology has not changed tremendously. There’s something interesting about machines and learning – the machine can be as powerful as you want, but if you don’t know how to teach it, it’s useless. The question of how to teach AI for luxury comes back to the purpose you want it to serve. If it’s to improve the fine tuning of prices versus demand, then it’s super useful for brands.

In 2025, Stanislas de Quercize published Emparadiser la Vie – which roughly translates to Paradising Life –reflecting his philosophy on leadership and purpose

A brand is a connection with a human: we all know that when we buy from Dior, we don’t buy from Christian himself, we talk to a salesperson, who 99 per cent of the time is our only face of the brand. If these people do not treat us well, all that work is burned in 20 seconds. So, the idea that tomorrow there will be a computer version, instead of a salesperson, will not have an impact. Most people won’t notice because a good AI system automatises for as long as possible and hands back to a human if a problem occurs. For me, as long as we limit AI to being something supportive, I don’t think it will be brands’ sole way of engaging with humans. 

SdQ: We always need to improve luxury. We should question what we’re doing and how we’re doing it. AI is fundamental because it’s ultimately going to boost whatever you do, from manufacturing to selling.

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A watch wholesaler told me that one of his bestsellers was the preloved category. He added that the earth has been preloved over thousands of years: your apartment, your boutiques, your gardens, your castles. What you buy today, you can sell in six weeks, six months, six years. And I spoke to a brand that helps you buy and sell preloved jewellery. Preloved is human – it’s good for the planet and for everyone. But whatever we do, we need to always find ways to improve it, and AI will help that. 

DS: At the moment we have two interesting trends: we are in the middle of the greatest generational wealth transfer in the history of humanity, but the luxury consumer market shrank last year. How will these affect luxury?

Jonathan Siboni on a panel with the Financial Times as an expert in strategic analysis of luxury, fashion, and beauty data

JS: For me, the impact has already begun. If you look at the luxury revolution over the past 70 years, younger people have access to more wealth than before – partly from their parents. This young generation will transform the industry to something more experiential, emotional and authentic – more about being than having. That’s my feeling, and it’s begun already. Younger people also love fashion, they love trends. When it’s trendy, they overbuy, when it’s out of fashion, they don’t buy.

That’s a risk, but also an opportunity for luxury. With the second trend, the market shrunk a little, true, but it was overinflated because of Covid. People didn’t have many ways to spend money, so they overspent on luxury goods. Now they can travel again, they won’t spend as much as before, so there is a new normal.  

SdQ: First, always improve. Second, all clients are asking what you’re doing to save the planet – there’s a new law in the EU called CSRD (Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive), an obligation for large companies to declare their environmental impact. Third, we need to improve where we develop. Luxury started in France, then developed into Europe, the USA, the Middle East, and now Japan, China and India.

There is a lot of effort to improve there because India is the number one market. In 1999, China was two per cent of the luxury market, now it’s between 35 and 50 per cent. India is one per cent of the market now so I think it will increase because of this new generation. I also think it’s important to have a price pyramid. We need the combination of access price and expensive price.

‘What I love in luxury is that there is cooperation instead of competition. I worked as a board member of Comité Colbert, which has 95 maisons working in concurrence, not in competition’ – Stanislas de Quercize

JS: Something amazing started to appear in the past generation – new luxury brands. When I started, there was new commerce, but not new brands. Now in almost all the industries there are new brands with relatively young founders. It proves there’s an openness to look at modernity and not just heritage. If you look at the brands performing best in luxury, they are ones considered modern – even if they are old, they re-invent themselves.

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Where I believe the rules of the game can change is in new categories. A few years ago, I was in Switzerland with luxury brands and we discussed the Apple Watch. We asked ourselves: will it change or kill the luxury watch market? If every day people put smartwatches on, they may still have a Patek, but keep it in the safe – that’s not how they engaged with a product before and it would limit the market to only a few brands with high investment power.

It’s also about safety and technology. People hesitate to put on an expensive watch because of safety questions. If you have an amazing watch but can’t wear it, plus you prefer to have an Apple Watch to see what’s happening on your phone, it brings into question the long-term existence of the categories. They will survive, but maybe as pieces of art – much as we have antique furniture now as art pieces.

‘My own definition of luxury is what you transmit’ – Stanislas de Quercize

Christian Louboutin and Jimmy Choo are amazing brands, but if tomorrow people don’t want cars any more and everybody takes a bike to work, they will not wear heels – you cannot wear heels on a bike. The evolution of people’s lives will show which categories are engaging with which brands, and some young brands may be better at this. 

SdQ: Well, in luxury, there are always new brands and new creativity: Cartier is nearly 200 years old, but Messika only 20. So there is old and new, and you can sell again what you created 100 years ago – Cartier preloved and vintage jewellery, for example. What I love in luxury is that there is cooperation instead of competition. I worked as a board member of Comité Colbert, which has 95 maisons working in concurrence, not in competition. There are more and more clients in the world, and we need to open in new countries, so there’s room. 

JS: Luxury grows by going into new territories: if you stay where you are, you die. Luxury started two generations ago – brands with a strong heritage selling to a few rich clients in a few rich countries. Over the past 40 years they started selling to the middle classes in new territories and making new products for them, such as perfume. They have reinvented constantly to survive change.  

Today, brands need huge reach to grow – and it’s hard to be visible and not dilute yourself too much. There are two philosophies. The French philosophy is that brands come from haute couture, like Hermès, and go to ready-to-wear and perfume and so on. Then you have the Italian model of brands that come from the middle, like Armani, and grow, which allows them to go to haute couture. Today, these two models are competitors, because all brands went both up and down. Now, all luxury brands go to jewellery – to all segments – but will that hold? It’s an open question.

Siboni speaking at Le Sommet du Luxe et de la Création 2025

SdQ: The President of Hermès said luxury is what you repair, what you restore. My own definition of luxury is what you transmit. Your luxury is the best way to express your love, your friendship, your fraternity; it’s also vital to create new emotions. I once decided to invite our 80 top clients every year to see the new high jewellery collection, so they made potential new friends from different countries who love jewellery.

When we created a dinner at the top of the Eiffel Tower to present a new collection, a young American, maybe 25 years old, raised a toast to being a fourth-generation buyer. That’s what we are looking for: to have loyalty and serve clients from generation to generation. It is important to share from country to country, with companies helping each other, and to have events that people can share and amplify and are wins for everyone. 

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DS: In terms of technology, Luxurynsight is a data firm, so what is happening in terms of the way luxury will be monitored?

JS: Luxury brands are about creating something that may not be needed but that will be desired. Generally, that comes with a high intensity of intuition and creativity that helps these maisons become empires. However, the world is changing quickly and, for me, the only way to understand its opportunities is to be able to create better GPS. Hermès, Louis Vuitton and Karl Lagerfeld all ensured they had as much connection to the world around them as possible. 

Stanislas de Quercize, Bernadette Chirac and Princess Charlene attend the Van Cleef & Arpels Exhibition Launch at Musee Des Arts Decoratifs in Paris, France 2012

Technology helps us go further. We work with more than 60 maisons every day, bringing in AI to optimise their business. The reality of the market today is not just your shop, it’s social media, it’s the ability to tell brands, “You’re performing well in that category but your competitor is doing this.” We process three to five million images a day. I can tell you in Italy right now which colour or category is over-performing because of the number of people wearing them.

Zara was a revolution a few decades ago, because it brought new technology to look at the world around it and be extremely reactive. Today, even Zara is being disrupted by new players like AI. The question is not, “How can I be quicker than them?”, because you can’t. Just see what the world is doing, find new opportunities in what you do, and look at the world around you with a little more prediction capability – not to copy, but to create.  

Stanislas once told me, “We invented the brake to go quicker.” If I give you data, you can be more creative – you can measure the risk of going in that direction of creativity. If you have zero data, anything you do will be a risk. That’s the beauty of luxury: it’s not about using data in order not to take risks; it’s using it to evaluate well and be better at taking the risks. You need to stay ahead by running, not by waiting and saying, “I’ve been here for 200 years.”

SdQ: You know, Jonathan is a genius: he’s using data to help people make decisions. Whenever you are travelling you need some form of GPS to help you, and in giving you data he helps you with that.  

DS: You’ve anticipated my next question: what do each of you find most interesting about the other?

Prince Albert de Monaco, Actress Juliette Binoche and President of Cartier Stanislas de Quercize attend the ‘Cartier: Le Style et L’Histoire’ Exhibition Private Opening at Le Grand Palais in Paris, France 2013

JS: A better question would be, “what don’t I?”. I am most fascinated by two things. The first is his modernity: the ability to think of the future and not just the past, no matter how glorious – when you’ve been the CEO of Cartier and so on –  but to look at the future, its complexities and trends. The second is a true kindness. Stanislas has been waking up every day to help young people, to help new industry – pure, non-business-related kindness that people want to give back to him. Speak to anyone who has worked with Stanislas, even 30 years ago, we all owe him a lot. I’m in debt to his kindness and vision, and that is rare: when you’ve done a lot, sometimes you think you can take, just because you have power. Stanislas is all about giving. 

SdQ: As I mentioned, Jonathan is fabulous because what he is doing with data really is helping everybody. One hundred per cent of brands and maisons are able to make decisions, and it’s incarnating his prophecy through inspiring, joyful solutions. If you’re using Luxurynsight, it’s boosting you. 

JS: What luxury brands have done recently is be open to change. When you’re number one, you don’t have as much incentive; all you can do is to lose, so you tend to just stop. But this ability to say, “You’re doing something I don’t know about; show me what you do,” is new to a lot of luxury groups. I think with this vitality, luxury will continue to be the amazing sector it’s been for hundreds of years. 

Read this continuing series of LUX x Luxurynsight Dialogues online at LUX magazine

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Fashion retail legend Tom Chapman with founder of Luxurynsight Jonathan Siboni

Tom Chapman is a fashion retail legend, having created cult high fashion store Matches in London, and turned it into a runaway online retail success story, selling it a deal worth more than $1bn in 2017. He is now an active private investor in innovative consumer brands. Here he speaks with Jonathan Siboni, founder of Paris-based luxury data company Luxurynsight, on data, luxury and the future

Tom Chapman: It’s fascinating to see what you’ve been doing, the data you find about brands and understanding markets. I am intrigued by your purchase of Heuritech, your 360-degree view of luxury, consumers, brands, pricing architecture – it is incredible. I am disappointed I didn’t have these tools to hand during my career!

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Jonathan Siboni: Thank you, Tom. Heuritech analyses three to five million social-media images per day to understand what people like, what they wear, how they wear it, shapes and prints. For more than 10 years it has been using visual recognition to create a predictive model. We can predict up to 24 months, and with simulation we have reached 92 per cent accuracy. We are already integrated in systems for brands such as the leading Japanese fashion brand in the world, where they put us, via API, in all the production facilities. When they launch a basic T-shirt in France, they use our model to adjust colours, volume, and ship directly to markets. 

TC: So you are doing predictive analytics geographically as well, looking at specific markets and countries to predict what will perform?

Tom Chapman and his wife, Ruth Chapman, built Matches from a boutique to a global luxury platform

JS: We can even do it at city level. With the leading worldwide sportswear brand, for example, we’ve been capturing millions of images of New York marathons over the years, so we know what percentage run in trainers, and what types. With creatives, inspiration and intelligence can be overrated because they are influenced by what you read, the music you listen to, history, travel. We add a layer to creativity by bringing to it a real-time vision. 

TC: I’ve always believed in a perfect balance of magic and logic. As a bricks-and-mortar retailer, we had 14 stores holding different merchandise and I wanted to see how we could cross-sell to our clients, so in the early 2000s we digitised the total inventory. I did this because I personally knew the clients who came into store, understood their experience, had conversations with them and analysed their preferred brands and products. Jonathan, how can a program predict that? How do you drive changes for brands with such an incredible amount of data?

Read more: Tom Rowntree on modern luxury hospitality

JS: When we created the company 10 to 15 years ago, there was not enough data. We had to send people to stores to collect prices and add them on an Excel file. So I created a “GPS” for luxury, a kind of sat nav that tells you what is happening around you. Even though you know where you are going, it finds you the shortest route to your destination, which for brands could be profit, growth, new clientele, diversification and so on. Nowadays there is too much data but because it is iterative we know the type you need, when you need it, and what for. We improved the tech and it accelerated during Covid as brands moved to online sales, collecting prices digitally worldwide in 100 countries as e-commerce arrived everywhere.  

In his company Luxurynsight, Jonathan Siboni combines a deep knowledge of luxury brands with data analytics to help heritage luxury brands modernise their strategy

TC: What is the challenge today?

JS: The pace of change! People have reduced attention spans, they see something new on TikTok, things happen fast. When you are a creative branded product or experience, you have your vision and you share it. Data must describe that offer – and the demand for it.  

TC: So how do you do that? 

JS: You have access to all your consumer data about demand, age, preferences, what they buy. I will see what brands are selling, what product was offered on the market, in what size, price, segments. I will map the offer in real time: price, price differential, volume, size, and so on,  where I stand versus competition. I don’t tell brands what to do. I provide the ingredients and brands are the Michelin-star chef. They choose the ingredients they want, they cook!

TC: When I think of the offer, it is really a personal decision. For some a branded key fob is a luxury, for others it’s about time and experience. How do you map all that?  

JS: We look at the three reasons people buy: objectively, they like the price, material, quality; subjectively, it’s about the dream, desire and love for the brand; last, they want to show it off – or not if it’s quiet luxury. Relativity in decision-making depends on culture, service, experience, and over the last generation service has come to the fore. Brands have evolved from family maisons serving the international wealthy, to become diversified and globalised. However, if you grow from a €10 million to €20 billion revenue business, it becomes impossible to deliver the personal service you are reputed for. Sometimes brands segment the customers and give VIP access to certain stores. Of course, you can only offer this quality of relationship in your home market. So the objective of the brands is to level up their position.

Tom Chapman with journalist Gianluca Longo

TC: I agree, Jonathan, it’s challenging as we have the capability to offer a much better level of service experience. I stay in Aman resorts across the world, so why when I arrive don’t they know what drink I want? The hotels are not communicating with each other, even though they are part of the same group. You can walk into Hermès in New York: do they know you, do they have facial recognition software, how is the digital experience? Luxury is about so much more than the product. It’s about the whole experience.  

I’ve been in retail for a long time, seeing everything suddenly available and brands coming in to research pricing architectures. Consumers became aware of pricing and we entered this cycle of discount promotional activity and clearing dead stock. It took away the luxury element and desirability of product. How do you drive scarcity at scale? Hermès and Philippe Patek have done it, there are also lots of brands that have been successful at it, but not necessarily true luxury brands. How can you manage this conversation with a consumer who feels overwhelmed and detached by the amount of product and its ubiquity?

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JS: Well, this is a fundamental question because it is about cycles. In the 1980s, French investors saw luxury could be big business, started investing, buying and consolidating, so now we have a $350 billion-plus industry. But after this cycle, what comes next? Luxury has become a huge industry with lots of commodities. Customers take revenge when brands increase prices too high. Luxury is about differentiation: brands need to ask themselves where they come from, what is their USP. Jean-Louis Dumas, Chair of Hermès for nearly 30 years from the late 70s, said we have to grandir sans grossir – grow without getting fat. The view was we could easily grow 20 to 30 per cent a year, but we restrict it to eight to 10 per cent. Where groups are listed, there’s a huge pressure from investors quarter to quarter: where do you find growth? This is the challenge.

Jonathan Siboni speaking at a panel with the Financial Times on navigating pricing and market trends within the luxury industry today

Samantha Welsh: So brands review their archive, refocus on craft to differentiate and grow slowly?  

TC: Yes, that’s interesting, isn’t it? I was talking with some brand owners the other evening about vintage clothing. They said they need to have an interest in buying vintage now, because the quality is so much better than a lot of product made today, and it is another way of communicating with customers and creating loyalty. For me, with Chanel, the price has gone up, there’s a desperation to throw new designers in, they have lost their way. Whereas you go into an Hermès store and they still have the saddle sitting in the corner – the customer can understand the brand, they have a sense of humour, there is a whole experience. The Row and Loro Piana, the quiet luxury brands, are consistently producing good, well-made product that consumers are attracted to and engaging with. Even though The Row is relatively small, revenue grew fast from $50 million to around $300 million, and the relationship they build with customers sets them for further growth. 

JS: The Row defines luxury in a way that could have been written in the 1970s: “We have a brand. We know what we’re doing. We have a style. We bring very high-quality products and clear design. We’ll stick to what the brand represents.” Right now there is loyalty and respect for resilience and clear direction. This is the problem brands face in China. There are too many customers to build loyalty: there are six million millionaires in China and 117 cities with more than a million inhabitants. Twenty years ago China was the factory of the world, 10 years ago it became the market of the world, now it is the laboratory of the world. The people getting rich are different people. Customers are getting younger. Brands may grow revenues 20 to 30 per cent a year but 60 to 70 per cent of that revenue represents new customers, meaning you are losing customers and chasing a new base. There is no loyalty so you have zero customer base.

Tom and Ruth Chapman pictured with Michel Martono at Hotel Il Pellicano’s 60th birthday party

TC: Your knowledge of China is second to none. What is China’s share of the luxury market? 

JS: Before Covid, China represented just 10 per cent. Post Covid, the Chinese have started to travel again. Japan’s market share increased 52 per cent in Q2 2024, but that was not down to Japanese consumers buying, but wealthy Chinese. They also go to South Korea, Paris – with tax free it could be 30 per cent cheaper to buy the product – less now to London with the removal of tax-free shopping and Brexit. So the percentage share for China has been up to 35 per cent, though now it’s closer to 25 per cent. I am optimistic it can go to 45 to 50 per cent by 2030, given their engagement. 

China is so huge, the home luxury market is so massive that the market cap for spirits brand Maotai exceeds that of Hermès globally. New Chinese brands can be successful without having grown internationally, provided they chase cyclic growth through engaging with next gen long term. A young person, a guo child, is the pride of this culture, particularly in younger businesses like make-up or fast fashion. One Chinese cosmetics start-up founded in 2020 now has 17 per cent of the Chinese market, ahead of L’Oréal. So local brands are finding new ways to engage with next gen and telling them be proud to be Chinese.  

TC: Do you think heritage still plays a significant part in creating a luxury brand? 

JS: Yes, and that’s because the one thing you cannot buy is time. The Chinese love history, they have a lot in common with the French – they love culture, they research and know our brands better than we do. Heritage is what makes something unique and hard to replicate. This is why vintage is not developed in China as it is in the West. They want authenticity.

‘What I feel is most important now is trust: in the product, the brand, the luxury experience’ – Tom Chapman

SW: What is the plan long term for vintage for luxury brands?  

JS: Some product is too hard to find in store, so you buy it secondhand on the grey market – a Hermès Birkin or a Patek Philippe collectable. Vintage is old amazing products, like cars. The new secondhand is somewhere in the middle: there is no demand for it, it is just available and cheap. Brands don’t know how to operate secondhand because of issues with authentication and condition. At some point they will need to, to re-engage with their clients, and because clients are creating their own style. However, they will lose margin. 

TC: We’re looking at the biggest wealth transfer between generations in history. Young people will acquire enormous wealth and they love vintage. We were talking about craft and the importance of craft in value. We’ve seen disposable fashion, like the Balenciaga logo T-shirts or the sneaker that is a moment in time. Will this next-gen consumer be more focused on the storytelling and authenticity, the craft, the makers, and the way products are made? 

JS: Yes, but we will need to segment more. Influencers and TikTok are huge, there’s a polarisation of consumers and how they want to be identified. Brands need to understand the values of the people they want to engage with, so if customers want to save the planet then they need to go green and B Corp. So, yes, I think next-gen will increasingly rate credibility. 

TC: What I feel is most important now is trust: in the product, the brand, the luxury experience. Trust will be really important in creating businesses in the future. And that comes from great leadership, strong direction, the vision for where you’re going and sticking to that vision and strategy.

This article was first published in the Winter 2026 print issue of LUX. Read this continuing series of LUX x Luxurynsight Dialogues monthly online at LUX magazine

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