Audrey Depraeter-Montacel • Accenture

Not long ago, beauty consumers typically discovered new products through magazines, store counters or personal recommendations. With the rise of social media, influencers began playing a key role in shaping purchasing decisions. Now, the industry is entering a new phase in which generative AI (gen AI) is quickly becoming the primary resource for beauty shoppers seeking advice. Accenture’s latest Consumer Pulse Survey confirms gen AI is now the top source of beauty recommendations among active users—those engaging with gen AI at least once a week. Gen AI surpassed physical stores, social media, and even friends and family. This marks a turning point in how beauty consumers discover, evaluate and purchase products and services.

From Search to Suggestion

Gen AI is reinventing the digital shopping experience by making the product search experience conversational. Consumers once searched for a brand or a product. Now they can ask for advice by conversing with search tools or chatbots powered by gen AI.

For instance, someone getting ready for a wedding might ask which lipstick shade would go best with an outfit. She might ask for options from cruelty-free brands under $40. Gen AI doesn’t just list hundreds of products. Instead, it makes recommendations based on past purchasing behavior. Or, it asks clarifying questions about color, finish or budget, then refines recommendations accordingly.

It’s what Olay is doing with Skin Advisor. This tool uses a selfie and short questionnaire answered and uploaded by beauty consumers to assess key facial features like under-eye areas, cheek texture and fine lines. It takes all this information and recommends products customized to the individual. Skin Advisor enables Olay to learn valuable insights from its consumers, including common queries, product demands and emerging trends. It also allows Olay to deliver a differentiated brand and shopping experience to consumers. Ultimately, this data can be used to help the brand tailor its offerings by addressing each shopper’s needs in a personalized manner, which will ultimately enhance consumer loyalty.

This shift from search to suggestion and recommendation makes shopping more intuitive. It creates a powerful opportunity for beauty brands to show up in AI-driven conversations. Among active users of gen AI, 83% say they rely heavily on the resulting recommendations when forming opinions about products or services.

Cutting Through the Noise

Whether browsing in-store or scrolling through an e-commerce site, beauty shoppers are confronted with an extensive, and sometimes overwhelming, array of options. Eight in 10 beauty shoppers say they wish they could find the right products for them more easily, and just as many crave more interactive discovery experiences. Around three-quarters of beauty consumers say they are open to using an AI-powered personal shopper that understands their needs and goals. And, seven in 10 say they aren’t just looking for advice from a single brand, they want solutions that span across multiple.

In this AI‑curated path to purchase, beauty retailers and brands win by being smarter—not louder—through structured data, reliable content, and maintaining a clear and consistent brand, which shoppers trust, and algorithms recognize.

The Loyalty Equation

Accenture’s research found that three-quarters of consumers want beauty brands to make them feel special by remembering them personally. One in four are loyal to a brand because of emotionally engaging experiences—more than price, convenience or even quality.

Gen AI is helping meet this demand for personalization in ways that traditional channels struggle to replicate. When gen AI delivers personalized, proactive recommendations, it doesn’t just help shoppers choose. It makes them feel seen and understood. That emotional connection can be the foundation of lasting loyalty. In fact, 42% of consumers say they would switch to a brand that proactively anticipates their needs.

The Trust Imperative

Even as consumers start to use these tools more broadly, some are cautious in trusting AI-generated content. In response, beauty companies should act with transparency and adhere to consent-driven data practices. This ensures shoppers’ data is used responsibly to deliver the customized recommendations and experiences that are engaging and keep people coming back.

Better Together

Actively engaging in the large language model ecosystem is also vital for beauty brands that must ensure their content, product data and brand voice are well represented. And, at the same time, show up within the platforms consumers already use and the recommendations they are offered.

Beauty is not alone. Across industries, nearly nine in 10 C-suite leaders plan to increase AI investments this year, recognizing it will eventually reshape every corner of the enterprise.

From SEO to GEO

In many ways we’re moving from Search Engine Optimization to Generative Engine Optimization. Large language models are the new influencers, driving shopping decisions through recommendations. The imperative becomes finding a way to be “found” by optimizing brand presence for AI-driven discovery.

Another good example of data and AI-led innovation in action is Noli, a multi-brand beauty startup founded and backed by the L’Oréal Groupe. Noli, short for “No One Like I”, is on a mission to empower every beauty consumer with her own trusted advisor. Noli’s AI diagnostics are trained on over one million skin data points and thousands of product formulations. By decoding each user’s unique beauty profile, Noli delivers confident product picks straight to their door.

The Time Is Now

Beauty has always been about more than products. It’s about identity, self-expression and belonging. Gen AI gives brands a way to deliver on all of these while deepening loyalty at the same time.

About the Author
Audrey Depraeter-Montacel is the global beauty lead at Accenture. For more information, click here.