EveLab Insight Looks at the Future of AI in Beauty

Nick Howard, director of global strategy at EveLab Insight, discusses the two hot topics across the retail and beauty sector and whether personalization through artificial intelligence is possible during an age of data privacy. 

EveLab Insight is an artificial intelligence skin analysis company. It is able to identify 40 different skin concerns in roughly 30 seconds through a database of 10 million images labeled by dermatologists. 

Howard predicts that 10 years from now, consumers will be able to take a picture and assess all the different skin concerns related to health such as colorization, allergies, autoimmune or immune deficiency. 

Across the industry health, beauty and wellness are becoming more intertwined than ever before. Howard said while beauty is seen as subjective, healthy skin is not — how humans view our skin and how we measure and understand our health is vastly “untapped.”

EveLab released a preliminary study last year looking at 400,000 women in a controlled skin analysis environment. The results found that women do age “everywhere, everything but not all at once.” Howard noted that aging is not a linear progression, it’s actually a regression line. Another notable factor is looking at the normal sequence in which people age — based on region, gender, ethnicity, environment and more. 

The beauty industry has already been discussing how AI and skin care are being talked about in a more personalized way and across the retail space. Howard posited a time will come when a consumer steps into a store and a brand offers a product specifically for the consumer: when they need it, how they need it and what they will do with the product.

Howard said he posed the keynote speech as a question “because it’s not an answer yet.” While we currently live in an era of data privacy, brands now have to predict more about the consumer’s individual needs and wants with less information.

AI is intelligence, which requires learning and questions. To continue to learn, more information is always a key component. Retail partners are discussing how at a minute level they can segment consumer behavior, purchasing, consumer spending habits, how consumers engage in the brand and more.

“Aside from just an intelligence, AI is a probability engine,” said Howard. “It’s not an answer engine. It’s looking at what is probable. The AI is figuring out as it goes what are the expectations and how do we make it work for you.” 

While noting the segmentation of consumer behavior and understanding loyalty programs, Howard questions whether consumers can be personalized and catered to by brands without giving in-depth personal information. 

“Bringing the science into it and seeing how it all gets pulled together makes a big difference in how we build AI algorithms and how we start to model out how this works,” said Howard.

Howard concluded that to be successful in personalization, companies need to ask themselves what questions they are themselves asking and what data they are bringing into their AI model to make it work for everyone.