Digitalization of devices, supply chains, and laboratories will define innovation in beauty this year, with Artificial Intelligence (AI), biotech, and data feedback carving out significant change, say experts.

As beauty kickstarts 2025, industry enters a new tech era—one set to empower innovators and creators like never before. Think analytical smart mirrors and wearables, AI-backed data and supply chains, and biotech-led skin models and ingredients, many showcasing at CES (The Consumer Electronics Show) in Las Vegas in January. 

But with all of this groundbreaking tech at our fingertips, how exactly are advances set to shape beauty as we know it? And what level of opportunity is really out there? Beauty Matter caught up with four experts in the field to brainstorm the next phase of Beauty 4.0.

AI Puts Beauty on Steroids

“AI has taken everything that existed before and kind of put it on steroids,” says Robin Raskin, tech expert and founder/CEO of the Virtual Events Group. “This year, in a nutshell, is: AI meets the beauty industry, and it takes every part of it.”

AI, Raskin says, will be applied to the entire beauty supply chain, influencing product development and even shifting marketing strategies, as industry uses this tech to speed up and refine everything.

In 2025, AI will take personalized beauty to new heights, she says, as smart devices work to analyze every pore, blood vessel, and skin cell deeper than ever before—feeding back formula and ingredient ideas accordingly. “We're heading towards it being a custom product … And then to take that further, you can then use [the product] for three weeks and go back on the app or whatever it is to analyze your skin and see if it's working or not,” she says. “... AI will give us precision; it's the precision that has been missing.”

Simon Hathaway, retail expert and Chief Strategy Officer at modernspace, says AI will also bring precision behind the scenes— to the back end of retail spaces and brand operations.

“When you look at what AI is going to change at retail level, it effectively is going to enable you to do a hell of a load of calculations very, very quickly. The speed of process has just accelerated dramatically,” Hathaway says.

AI, for example, will add precision along the supply chain by automating and speeding up various warehouse processes and deliveries, he says. The technology will also improve predictive analytics used for buying product and stocking shelves, enabing retailers to track and respond to beauty trends from the likes of TikTok in almost real time. “Getting a trend right and being a good buyer as a retailer is really hard—it's a blend of art and science—so this is where AI will be interesting.”

Hathaway says AI tech will also continue to seep into consumer homes and add precision here too, with smart homes set to become the norm in the near future—think robot devices for cleaning and cooking and mirrors and wearables to track sleep, health, beauty, and overall well-being.

Consumer Feedback Loops: Tech vs. Touch

Helga Hertsig-Lavocah, trend tracker, Senior Futurologist and founder of Hint Futurology, says advances in AI and other technologies play into a future defined by “feedback loops” and “tracking” as consumers become hooked on the need for data, analysis, and commentary.

“Maybe it's about trust, and maybe society as a whole has forgotten to trust itself,” Hertsig-Lavocah says. Many consumers today will go on apps, conduct online research, and talk to others before even attempting something themselves, across all manners of daily life, from DIY repairs to cooking and even skin care, she says. “... Maybe we've lost trust, and we feel we don't have the skills, and a lot of the old-school skincare is about trusting yourself and your body.”

So, as beauty consumers seek this feedback, Hertsig-Lavocah says "feedback loops" will rise in importance—both inward and outward. Inward loops, she says, can be considered self-generated through touch or massage, aligning with the boom of face yoga and facial massages, and outward loops pivot on device analysis and response as digital adoption becomes the norm for many.

For consumers seeking the latter, she says beauty brands that can offer devices like face masks, wearables, or smart mirrors that provide skincare insights and suggestions will thrive, particularly at a time where consumers worldwide have become “obsessed with tracking.”

Data, Data, and More Data

“Tracking is definitely a huge thing that is now going to come to skin because data is empowering,” Hertsig-Lavocah says.

Raskin agrees, noting that the boom in wearable technology to track health has already started to blur into beauty.

“If it was a smart watch five years ago, now it's glasses … there are skin strips you can put on to monitor your sweat, temperature, pre-menopausal or menopausal states; there are all these wearables you put in your ears, and it monitors everything you have done, but it's also a headset. You're seeing rings, like the Oura ring, a lot of them with more capability. Rings, glasses, and ears; I call it head, shoulders, knees, and toes. You can wear wearables all over your body to check on various things.”

And this rise in wearables, along with the consumer acceptance of these technologies, Raskin says, holds promise for data gathering in beauty, especially skin health. “Now, you can have your skin analyzed by any one of a number of devices,” she says, from smart mirrors to cryo masks and even your mobile phone.

Dr. Theresa Callaghan PhD MBHMA, Cosmetic Claims and Scientific Affairs Specialist and owner of Callaghan Consulting International, says there are also plenty of advances around skin analysis happening in the lab as well.

Scientists, for example, are now able to mimic human skin and understand skin needs in vitro, Callaghan says, as next-generation skin models, including 3D bio-printed skin, become more widely available. “Bioengineered skin is an advancement going on in R&D that might lead to better breakthroughs in regenerating the skin and, of course, wound healing as well as animal study alternatives,” she says.

There is also ongoing work in the field of epigenetics—the study of changes in organisms due to gene expression modification—with some researchers now looking at reprogramming skin cells to reverse signs of aging, she says. And biomimetics or biomimicry—the imitation of biological processes or models from nature to solve various complex biological problems—is fast-advancing in the cosmetic science space, she adds, as scientists and developers work on new ingredients that play into this deeper skin knowledge.

“I really think that biotechnology-driven processes and understandings will keep our industry driving forward,” Callaghan says.

A Future Where Health and Beauty Collide

Asked what overarching trends are set to shape technology and science developments in beauty, all four experts saw a clear merge between health and beauty as a future game-changer.

“Personal beauty and personal health are blurring together,” Raskin shares, “and I think consumers, the new consumer, is very interested in their health as well as their beauty, and they see it together; that's a good thing.”

Hathaway agrees, saying tech advances in healthcare also indicate lots of potential crossover and future synergies in how the health, wellness, and beauty markets could interact with consumers in the future. He says the creation of "digital twins," for example, where a person has a 3D virtual model of themselves to track and predict healthcare outcomes, could ultimately incorporate skincare or beauty data. “You look at the AI skin analysis that we're already doing, and you kind of wonder what the commercial opportunity is here.”

Hertsig-Lavocah says beauty and health can also be blended by expanding product portfolios. “Moving forward,” she says, “I think every new [beauty] brand is going to have to launch a nutrition side, be it in a partnership or launching their own thing.” And while nutrition is a “whole different legislative pathway” to beauty, she says it fits within the same universe and is increasingly relevant as tracking continues to garner engagment among consumers.

Callaghan adds that, beyond human health, planetary health will continue to drive and shape beauty innovations of the future, as demands for “sustainability, accountability, and transparency” continue to rise at every level of the supply chain, from every angle. And lots of advances here, she says, will pivot around biotechnology.