Fashion's future is "phygital": and smart retailer DeFacto is leading the way

(September 2025) With more than 500 stores across 100 countries, Turkish fashion brand DeFacto wants to be more than just affordable—it wants to deliver a seamless shopping journey that blends the physical and digital. 

In this Transform Talks interview, CIO Abdurrahman Kılınç tells Huawei's Executive Editor-in-Chief, Gavin Allen, why the company has gone “all in” on AI, from personalized recommendations and virtual try-on tools to AI-generated clothing designs.

Kılınç argues that every retailer must now think like a technology company to meet rising customer expectations. He also shares how DeFacto’s cloud migration with Huawei laid the groundwork for its AI-driven transformation, and why the toughest challenge isn’t the tech itself, but integrating it into the culture of fashion retail.