The beauty industry has found a renewed love for artificial intelligence (AI), as an increasing number of brands explore the format’s potential use in marketing campaigns.
Unilever is the latest beauty business tapping the space, after announcing it would use AI to “reinvent its product shoots to meet the growing demand for content”.
Efficiency is a key element in brands investing in AI tech, as Unilever claimed that product imagery is being created two times faster and 50% cheaper.
“Integrating AI-driven technologies such as NVIDIA Omniverse to create pixel-perfect product twins is helping to boost product desirability, reduce complexity and accelerate content creation,” Unilever said in a statement.
“This is leading to 100% brand consistency and faster content creation.”
Esi Eggleston Bracey, Chief Growth and Marketing Officer at Unilever, brushed off concerns about the content’s overall quality and consistency.
“This isn’t about pushing out more content – anyone can do that,” said Eggleston Bracey.
Instead, the beauty giant’s goal is to free up time for marketers to “focus on big creative ideas that build brands and earn a purchase”.
It used TRESemmé Thailand’s marketing as an example of AI-generated media’s benefits, reporting an 87% reduction in content creation costs and a 5% increase in purchase intent.
“It is about starting with a deep understanding of people’s needs and desires, executing our campaigns with creativity and backed by a high-quality content creation machine to deliver desire at scale,” added Eggleston Bracey.
“Our product twins can be deployed everywhere and anywhere, accurately and consistently so content is generated faster and on brand.”
Unilever is tapping tech such as NVIDIA’s Omniverse
Unilever is not the only company tapping into the technology, with Estée Lauder Companies (ELC) also exploring the space.
ELC partnered with Adobe Firefly on 12 March to “redefine its process of launching digital marketing campaigns through generative AI”.
The luxury giant said investing in digital advertising aims to “engage its diverse and unique consumer base”.
“By integrating Firefly across existing Adobe Creative Cloud workflows, ELC will drive efficiency, accelerate campaign execution and empower creative teams to recapture time – and focus on ideating and creating new artistic concepts,” ELC said in a statement.
ELC shares a similar attitude to Unilever’s in “unburdening marketing teams from repetitive tasks that take time away from driving new design concepts”.
The partnership forms part of ELC’s newly unveiled Beauty Reimagined scheme, a “bold strategic vision to restore the company’s sustainable sales growth and achieve stronger profitability”.
This includes increasing its visible advertising spending, as well as optimising marketing programmes and eliminating low-return marketing activities.
“A key focus of this plan includes driving transformative innovation to accelerate speed-to-market, as well as boosting consumer-facing investments to accelerate new customer acquisition,” said ELC.
“By harnessing Adobe’s Firefly capabilities to streamline content production, ELC reinforces its commitment to this vision – ensuring impactful, consumer-driven engagement at scale.”
Rituals has also used AI in combination with a real-life model to create the visual assets for its recently launched The Dream Collection.
Pantone used AI to announced its colour of the year 2025
It is the first time the brand has used AI, and Rituals said this combination enabled it to push the team’s “creative boundaries to bring the exclusive range’s ‘dream world’ to life”.
“AI can generate stunning environments and it allows for the creation of elements that would be highly expensive or challenging to produce in real life,” Dagmar Brusse, Creative Director at Rituals, told Cosmetics Business at the time.
“Such as futuristic landscapes, fantasy effects or dreamlike textures, while the real-life model keeps the campaign grounded in authenticity.
“It was important for us to create a visually captivating campaign that feels both aspirational and relatable, making the new collection launch more impactful and memorable.”
Although more brands are investing in AI, are consumers actually on board with the movement?
When Pantone revealed its colour of the year 2025, Mocha Mousse, social media users were quick to express their disappointment in the AI video revealing the shade.
Katie May Designs (@designsbykmay) wrote: “This is dull, flat, boring, neutral, exactly what we DON’T need going into the new year!!!! And on top of that an AI generated video? Where’s the creativity and passion?”
“The Pantone Color of the Year has great potential to unite creatives, but this year’s reliance on AI imagery feels a little detached. In the future, I’d love to see a stronger focus on celebrating the creative arts and feel more in touch with the world around us,” said Micah Tabak (@micah.tastrophe).
Rihanna’s Fenty Beauty also weighed in at the time by cheekily commenting: “You didn’t need, AI… You could have just posted a video of Gloss Bomb in ‘Hot Chocolate’.”
The argument for AI’s use in freeing up more time is certainly there, but there is equal concern that technology could move from mundane tasks to becoming the new standard.
Where the industry draws the line, and what consumers are willing to accept, will play a pivotal role in the future of AI in beauty.
