The AI Makeover Skincare Needs Now

Despite breakthroughs in personalisation across industries, skincare e-commerce experiences are still stuck in a loop: large dropdown menus requiring users to navigate and decipher how products are organised, endless generic diagnostic quizzes, and promoted products fighting for real estate above the fold. For a category as intimate and individualised as skincare, that’s not just outdated, it’s a missed opportunity.

The chatbot is dead - and frankly it was never useful, and certainly never felt connected to the brand voice. It’s time our digital skincare experiences became more personalised.

This isn’t just about experience. It’s about business.

Customised skincare is a rapidly expanding segment currently valued at $29.3 billion and expected to double by 2034. Consumers aren’t just looking for products; they’re seeking routines built for their specific needs, habits, and environments.

According to a McKinsey report, personalisation can lift revenues by 10-15%, while reducing acquisition costs by up to 50%. Deloitte found that 80% of consumers are more likely to purchase from a brand that offers personalised experiences. In beauty specifically, Nosto reported that personalised product recommendations lead to a 26% increase in conversion rate.

AI isn’t just a new interface, it's a performance tool.

It’s also a solution to some of the category’s most persistent challenges: high bounce rates and abandoned carts. Beauty and skincare e-commerce sees bounce rates near 39% and cart abandonment as high as 83% especially on mobile. A well-designed conversational experience can drive discovery while keeping users engaged and addressing their doubts in real time – all in service of moving them from interest to purchase without friction.

A New Kind of Skincare Concierge

For decades, modernisation for the skincare industry has meant investing in custom formulations and ingredient-level innovation. Meanwhile, the digital interfaces for most skincare brands have remained static, oversimplified experiences that fail to reflect the complexity of real skin needs.

Imagine, instead, an experience where a user can say, “I have oily skin, but it gets flaky in winter. I also wear makeup daily. What's a good morning routine?” and receive personalised insights and recommendations?

That's how brand-led large language models (LLMs) can transform the experience. Instead of forcing users to adapt to a structure, AI can meet them in conversation.

AI opens the door to human-like understanding, adaptive recommendations, and emotional connection at scale.

LLM-powered agents can do more than answer questions. They can:

• Learn preferences over time
  
• Shift tone based on mood or moment
  
• Offer true two-way interaction with context
  

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The Digital-Native Skincare Consumer Wants a Dialogue

We’re not just talking about creating a new modern-looking UI. Because younger consumers, gen z especially, aren’t impressed by that alone. They expect digital experiences to adapt to them, not the other way around. They’re fluent in nuance, allergic to inauthenticity, and want brands that listen as much as they speak.

Here’s what the next wave of skincare e-commerce could look like:

• Conversational Discovery: Users express goals, pain points, habits not just skin types.
  
• Routine Building in Real Time: AI assembles a regimen based on user input, refining as the dialogue progresses.
  
• Tone That Matches the Brand: Whether it’s science-backed calm (like Sunday Riley) or playful expertise (like Glossier), the AI speaks the brand’s language.
  
• Memory + Context: Return users pick up where they left off no repeated questions, no lost context.
  

And perhaps most transformative: no more menus. The future isn’t dropdowns or filters, it's fluid dialogue that moves from question to purchase without friction. The entire journey, from inquiry to checkout, becomes one seamless interaction.

For Pioneering Brands, the Moment Is Now

Forward-thinking beauty brands are already using AI in their formulations - optimising ingredients, customising regimens, predicting trends. But the digital experience is lagging behind.

The most innovative brands won’t just harness AI in the lab. They’ll bring it to the front line where brand, customer, and technology meet.

In a world where every touchpoint is an opportunity to connect, the digital layer can no longer be an afterthought.

Practical Takeaways for Brands

1. Ditch the old chatbot. Invest in an AI layer that can understand and evolve with users.

2. Start with voice and tone. Build a character that reflects the brand, not just the category.

3. Prototype with a real use case. Focus on one moment, say, onboarding a first-time shopper and optimise for that.

4. Track inputs, not just outcomes. What users say is insight gold. Use it to refine marketing, product dev, and retention.

5. Build trust through transparency. Let users know how AI is helping them and what it remembers.

This isn't about replacing human expertise. The role of AI here is to support it and to extend the brand's voice in digital contexts where skin consultants aren't present. With well-defined boundaries and clear objectives, LLMs can guide, recommend, and respond while staying rooted in the brand’s tone and values.

Skincare is personal. It’s emotional. It’s complex. Your digital experience should be smarter, not require you to navigate a product matrix, and have all the answers in a single flow.