AI in Beauty: How it Can Improve Your Biz  
What to Know About Artificial Intelligence in the Beauty Industry

It’s easy to hear the term “artificial intelligence” (or AI) and have your mind zoom straight to super advanced robots that walk, talk, and think adjacent to the way people do. Seems a little scary, right? 

Before you panic, here’s the good news–mainstream AI is nowhere near that advanced. And in even better news, no matter how advanced AI gets, it’s never going to be able to snag your job as a beauty pro. (Not even when robot manicures are on the market!) 

What’s super neat about AI is that incredibly smart developers out there are figuring out ways to design AI programs that are beneficial to small business owners like you. AI is being used as a tool by so many cosmetologists out there to help automate and elevate their services–not replace any of their skills. 

Truth be told, we think AI (when used appropriately) is an enormous biz hack–it can save you time, energy, and resources so that you can focus on the stuff AI could never touch, like being a badass beauty pro who knows everything there is to know about the industry. 

So, what’s the deal with AI, then? How is it being used in the cosmetology industry, and, more importantly, are there seamless and affordable ways you could implement this into your own beauty business? Keep reading to learn more! 

What is AI, Anyway?

Before we jump into practical application, let’s discuss the most important point of all–the definition of AI. Even if you’re vaguely familiar with artificial intelligence, it never hurts to brush up on the latest way to explain it (who knows, the definition could be even broader now!). 

According to IBM, artificial intelligence covers the span of science and engineering of making intelligent machines–like computer programs. There are a lot of different kinds of AI, but for the sake of keeping things relative, we’ll talk about three types that we think are most directly applicable to the world of cosmetology (and running a beauty business). 

Harvard Business Review (and we’re sure other places, too) calls the three types of business AI tools we’re going to talk about: process insight, cognitive engagement, and cognitive automation. Basically, each type has a particular goal in mind–automating certain business processes, using data to provide insight, and talking directly with customers. 

It’s no secret there are a lot more types of AI out there–and a lot of them have very little to do with running a beauty business. But these three are def the types we want to focus on for this blog, and, of course, for the application of your beauty biz. 

Top Ways to Incorporate AI Into Your Beauty Biz 

AI is supposed to make running your business easier. In other words, it’s supposed to take some of the day-to-day tasks off your hands, help you maximize your time, and increase your revenue. If we had to strip it all down and present the pros and cons of AI tools, those three things are pretty much the exact benefits we’d share with you. 

But how exactly do you reap those advantages? What do you put in place to wring the good stuff out of AI tools? And further, what kind of AI tools for your smart salon are we even talking about? This section has all the answers you’re looking for. 

Automate Your Processes 

One of the greatest benefits of artificial intelligence is its designed ability to automate those daily tasks that are necessary but tedious. We’re talking about things like scheduling social media marketing, finding your ideal target audience online, scheduling appointments, getting customers' information, sending out requests for reviews, and alerting you about cancellations. 

Of course, there are so many other things that AI can automate, but for the sake of argument, just consider those examples. How much of your time is taken up by these small but necessary tasks? Automation in AI technology can keep your business running smoothly by tackling these little things without requiring much (if any) input or energy from you. 

Help You Understand Your Customers Better

AI is only as good as the data you give it. If you’ve got excellent systems for tracking data, you can use AI to evaluate trends, deep-dive into insight, and share recommendations for you to get to know your customers better and serve them better. Think about the possibilities. You could have AI run through your data algorithms and scan for things like hair length, style preferences, and treatments–using all your information; you could come up with a long list of personalized recommendations for specific clients. 

More than that, though, it can help you keep up with ongoing trends for each of your customers. With AI insight, you can stay in the know about who’s coming in for what, potentially predict inventory based on their routine needs, and glean insight into the inner workings of each customer’s personality (a customer service industry dream!).

Write Clever Captions for Social Media Marketing 

You’ve no doubt heard the infamous ChatGPT making a splash on all your socials and in the headlines. Well, ChatGPT isn’t as scary as you might think–in fact, it’s actually really helpful if you’re a busy entrepreneur who’s trying to manage running a biz, digital marketing, and social media presence all at once. 

Chat GPT is a type of generative AI–it’s a tool that allows people to enter prompts and get responses back as if they were written by a human. Except it’s like, hella fast and super efficient. Generative AI isn’t perfect and doesn’t always sound human, so you def will need to double-check everything you use and infuse a little of your own pizzazz. 

But if you need help coming up with words for blog posts, ads, or even social media captions, it’s a super quick little tool that can spit out some great ideas. 

Solve Problems & Answer Customers Quicker 

Chatbots! Yep, you’ve used them a million times when interacting with other businesses, but did you know they can actually benefit yours, too? Think about how many emails and calls you get every day for standard questions that make up all your FAQs. 

Did you know you can program and utilize chatbots to answer these questions for you and eliminate all those minutes throughout the day you spend tackling the same questions over and over? 

Your customers will love how quickly they can get a concrete answer, and you’ll love how infrequently you’ll have to manually answer the questions “what are your hours today?” or “do you have any appointments available?” 

Fill Last-Minute Cancellations 

Your schedule is an ongoing puzzle that’s constantly being filled, edited, and re-filled. The objective is to fill every gap, right? Well, as a person trying to accomplish a million and one things, you can’t always be on top of cancellations with enough time to fill them. 

Enter AI. There are programs out there that can do a few different things to help you optimize your time. 

Some programs can allow for cancellations within a certain time frame and then alert you as soon as a cancellation is placed. Others can do this, plus reach out to any customer you’ve put on a waiting list to see if they’re available. Others can do all those things and rebook appointments within certain parameters, all without ever needing to ask for your approval. 

This allows you to get the most out of your day, schedule as many clients as makes sense, and optimize your calendar without having to go back and forth on the phone or emailing to fill empty spots. 

Virtual Reality Style Try-On 

This one is more of a maybe-in-the-future sort of thing when it comes to all salons or shops out there, but this kind of stuff is happening in businesses all over the world. Clients can truly do a hair try-on to anticipate what their desired style might look like on them–without having to commit to the cut, the makeup look, the nail design, and beyond. 

So, what do you think of AI? Are you ready to tack some of these tools onto your go-to repertoire? Still thinking it’s not the right route for you? No matter what, we hope this blog was insightful–and we hope you consider AI, in the long run, to help take some of the weighty and daily tasks off your talented shoulders. In the meantime, we encourage you to keep up with us by subscribing to our blog for more insight, top tips, and current trends in the beauty industry.