From L’Oreal and Olay to Procter & Gamble and Shiseido, companies across the beauty industry are embracing AI technology with open arms. But what are the risks of incorporating AI technology into business practices, and how can beauty companies protect themselves? […]
For answers to these questions and a closer look at this rapidly growing segment of the beauty industry, CosmeticsDesign spoke to attorneys Kelly Bonner and Agatha Liu of Duane Morris LLP, for their insights and experience. Kelly Bonner’s practice focuses on litigation risk and regulatory issues affecting businesses in the cosmetics and personal care industries, as well as cross-jurisdictional and complex commercial disputes involving FDA-regulated and consumer-branded products, and Agatha Liu has assisted clients with AI-related legal needs.
Common uses for AI in beauty & associated risks
One of the most common uses for AI technology is personalizing products and offering personalized product recommendations. “As beauty has become increasingly personalized,” Bonner explained, “companies are increasingly deploying AI technologies to enable customers to visualize new looks (virtual try-on tech) or communicate with customers via chatbots that act as virtual assistants and offer personalized product recommendations.”
Additionally, said Liu, “we see more robots automating beauty tasks performed on customers, such as applying cosmetics or other beauty products to human faces or bodies.”
Points of consideration for beauty companies regarding AI technology
While “today’s AI technology can save a fair amount of time in not only performing conventional services, but also uncovering hidden insight into consumer motivation and behavior,” Liu noted, “on the other hand, today’s AI technology generally lacks transparency and suffers from hallucination and thus still requires a considerable amount of human review.” […]
However, [Bonner] cautioned, “it’s very important for companies to balance innovation with compliance, particularly as technological innovation oftentimes outpaces legal regulations and consumer protection standards.” Ultimately, she concluded that “these are business judgments and risk assessments that companies will have to make, and it’s important to have the advice of counsel when making them.”