When AI Meets Aesthetics: How Artificial Intelligence is Reshaping the Beauty Industry as We Know It

While artificial intelligence A.I. was once thought of as a far-off and futuristic invention, the growing acceptance of A.I. across contemporary consumer culture has seen the technology implemented across a multitude of age-old industries – including the beauty industry, one of the world’s most popular consumer sectors that’s projected to reach a massive $571.1 billion valuation by the end of 2023 alone.

A.I.’s applications in the beauty industry are numerous; from trying on different shades of make up with the tap of a screen to conversing with chatbots trained to provide user-specific beauty recommendations, A.I. is benefitting beauty consumers around the world with its offering of increased convenience and accessibility.

But perhaps the most exciting thing about artificial intelligence’s future in the beauty space is about what isn’t visible to the naked eye. Diving far beneath the surface level, artificial intelligence facial recognition technology is capable of detecting a user’s unique skin needs within seconds, analyzing photos and videos to pinpoint everything from the skin’s dryness levels to pollution exposure to highlighting specific problem areas that need to be addressed.

65% of skincare consumers have no idea what ingredients to look for when selecting a cleanser & another 55% are reportedly unsatisfied with their current skincare regimen, A.I.’s application in the beauty space has the potential to remove all of the pesky guesswork from the equation.

Instead, A.I. connects consumers with the proper products and right ingredients tailored toward their skin is craving – without having to break the bank consulting with a dermatologist.

Countless skincare consumers have also discovered underlying skin conditions they previously were unaware of, such as rosacea dermatitis, thanks to A.I. capabilities, providing a path forward for their skin’s improvement they didn’t even know they needed.

Just look at artificial intelligence’s growing use in dermal cancer diagnoses to confirm the technology’s skin-saving potential. When using A.I. to analyze high-resolution dermoscopic images, “the performance of A.I. was demonstrated to be on par with dermatologists’ performance for skin cancer classification,” revealed a 2020 study.

Though A.I.’s present applications in the consumer-accessible beauty space use lower resolution images than dermoscopic – such as selfies – to complete their analyses, the technology certainly has the potential to begin democratizing dermatology and put more power back into the hands of consumers.

In fact, a 2019 study found that the implementation of A.I. has the potential to “successfully introduce behavioral change on a population-level,” making present-day artificial intelligence beauty innovations more than just a detector of skin conditions, but an actual catalyst toward consumers’ long-term skin improvement.

As A.I. continues to innovate and mature, the beauty industry – and consumers’ skin – will continue to benefit from its power and potential in the years to come.