Understanding identity, perception and consumer behaviour of AI and Digital Beauty Tools

Abstract

The report is a compilation of the results of six independent qualitative studies that examined the impact of AI and digital beauty products on how young Indian women perceive themselves and the beauty products they will purchase. The analyzed tools are augmented reality (AR) try-on applications, artificial intelligence skin analysis websites, social media filters of beauty, and artificial hairdressing assistants. All six studies used face-to-face interviews and reflexive thematic analysis (Braun & Clarke, 2006). The identified number of patterns (26) was divided into seven themes and explained according to the theories of both psychology/sociology and consumer behaviour. There were four key findings. First, women made a distinct differentiation between those tools that helped to make them look better and those that transformed their appearance, completely tolerating the former and intolerating the latter. Second, although women were aware that the images were changed digitally, this did not help them to avoid the emotional damage of comparing themselves to the images. Third, the issue of privacy was the biggest obstacle in using AI beauty tools, as women were looking to weigh the benefits they received against the possibility of their facial information being abused. Fourth, participants always wrote about what responsible, less harmful AI beauty tools would look like providing the beauty tech industry with a range of effective, userdriven design suggestions. Collectively, these results indicate that young Indian women do not passively consume AI beauty culture. They are skeptical, sensitive to their privacy, and have a distinct understanding of the limits in which digital tools are beneficial and harmful. This report contends that the industry needs to take this seriously especially on issues of data transparency, realistic beauty images, and control by users.