The AI Makeover: The future of authenticity in an artificial era

This month I was invited to present at the WWD Women’s Wear Daily Beauty CEO Summit in the somewhat anachronistic luxury setting that is The Breakers hotel in Palm Beach, and I found myself articulating a thought that felt both obvious and slightly heretical. For an industry built on the promise of transformation, I suggested, beauty is at risk of becoming utterly predictable. The very tool that promises infinite variety – artificial intelligence – is, paradoxically, compressing our aesthetic ambitions into a startlingly uniform mould.

My keynote explored this tension between AI-driven innovation and the human need for authentic connection. What I have come to realise since is that this is not merely a technological shift; it is a profound cultural one. In 2025 I made the prediction that:

‘Beauty will be to the luxury industry what fashion has been since the 1990s – the driver of change, the benchmark of future expectations.’

And right now, that benchmark is being set by the algorithm. I call this first wave Algorithmic Amplification. Technology that promised to diversify our feeds is instead reinforcing a monolithic ideal. Consider that in 2024, there were nearly 38m aesthetic procedures performed worldwide, a staggering 42.5% increase in just four years (source: International Society of Aesthetic Plastic Surgery). The algorithm has become a global tastemaker, and its taste is for a smooth, poreless, ageless composite. We saw the backlash when Gucci deployed hyper-realistic, AI-generated imagery that felt unnervingly vacant, a digital ghost in the luxury machine. Conversely, brands like Dove have taken a principled stand, pledging to use AI only to widen representation, never to create or distort faces. It is a schism that forces a fundamental question of brand identity. As the artist and creative director Dr Alex Box told us:

‘AI has shaken the snow globe of perception. We are in a transitional period of reality where brands are being forced to re-establish what they offer as their core message and truth.’

‘AI has shaken the snow globe of perception. We are in a transitional period of reality where brands are being forced to re-establish what they offer as their core message and truth.’

This recalibration extends to influence itself. We are moving into what I term The New Creatorverse, where AI is redrawing the lines of ownership and co-creation. The old model, where brand deals accounted for nearly 70% of a creator’s revenue, according to Goldman Sachs, is feeling increasingly transactional and hollow. I’m more interested in emerging forms of co-authorship, like the MBUX Sound Drive that Mercedes-AMG developed with Will.i.am, which turns the car into a responsive musical instrument, or Boss House Bali, a ‘phygital’ villa where guests become creators, their interactions shaping the space in real time. This is a world away from a simple sponsored post; it is a deeper, more meaningful collaboration.

Ultimately, however, the most profound shift is towards what we might call Mood Curation. For years, we have targeted demographics. Now, technology allows for the curation of emotion itself. This is a fraught yet fascinating space. Our research shows a stark generational divide: 49% of 18–35-year-olds are comfortable with AI communication from brands, but that figure plummets to just 23% for those over 55. Trust is the issue; only 24% of younger consumers believe brands will use these tools responsibly, according to Lippincott.

Yet when it works, it feels like magic – in the Lexus A-Un installation, for instance, AI sensors translated viewers’ heartbeats into a unique, responsive piece of digital art. But the technology must be invisible, an enabler of human connection, not its replacement. This is the Six Senses model of the Guest Experience Maker, whose data-informed insights are delivered with human warmth and intuition by the real-life guest services team.

We are emotional, inconsistent beings. As my fellow co-founder Martin Raymond notes:

‘The brain doesn’t work in fragments.’

We respond to provocation and surprise. Yet the algorithm is designed to eliminate friction, to serve us more of what it thinks we want. The risk is that beauty has become predictable – and predictable is powerless. Consumers are no longer chasing an impossible ideal of perfection. They are searching for meaning, for sensation, for brands that feel alive, responsive and, above all, human.

For a deeper perspective on beauty, read The Future Laboratory’s latest report.

With thanks to original presentation research and writing by Rhiannon Hudson

‘The brain doesn’t work in fragments.’