Factories are used to generate fake data for testing or seeding databases. They are particularly helpful in scenarios where you need to populate your database with sample records that mimic real data but are not actual production data. Factories provide a convenient way to create model instances with predefined attributes.

By using factories, you can easily populate your database with sample data for testing or development purposes without the need to manually create each record. This approach improves the efficiency and reliability of your application's testing and data seeding processes.