Beauty tech is driving the evolution of beauty, Wayne Liu, chief growth officer and president of Americas at Perfect Corp., told attendees on the WWD 2023 Digital Beauty Forum.

Citing recent consumer behavior studies, Liu shared that 70 percent of consumers say that experiences are more essential to them than material possessions, with 62 percent of consumers specifically finding recent technology to be exciting. Furthermore, 70 percent of consumers say they wish to see something more visual once they see search results.

“After we discuss beauty tech’s present and future,” said Liu in regards to the ongoing innovation happening around technology in the wonder space, “nothing really happened simply because it happened, there’s a few reasons we are able to look to and people reasons are triggered by the patron demand.”

While consumers are notably trying to have more experiences across all categories, beauty, said Liu, is uniquely poised to offer a winning result given its already playful nature. That’s why innovations like augmented reality (AR) and artificial intelligence (AI) are so impactful, he said.

Founded in June 2015, Perfect Corp. is a world leader in augmented reality and artificial intelligence with greater than 400 brand and retail partners, covering luxury, prestige and mass which have adopted Perfect Corp.’s various beauty tech SaaS products. Partnering firms include Sephora, Dior, Chanel, Neutrogena, Profit, Tencent WeChat and Harrods, amongst others.

Today, said Liu, access to AR shopping has turn out to be somewhat expected. In response to Google’s data, greater than 90 percent of Americans currently use or would think about using AR for shopping and 98 percent of those that have used AR while shopping found it helpful.

With customer expectations rising, Liu said those firms that don’t offer AR or AI on their web sites are losing the next percentage of consumers who’re willing to search for a brand that does. At the identical time, those brands who’ve successfully made AR technology a part of their business are showing great results. For instance, Liu cited The Estée Lauder Cos., a brand partner of Perfect Corp., which has seen a 250 percent increase in purchase conversion with its online lipstick try-on. Moreover, installing in-store makeup try-on technology has earned the corporate a 40 percent increase in purchase conversion and a 15 percent increase in average basket size, he said.

With technology, the long run of beauty is inspiring and proactive, said Liu, who predicted several trends will take off. Amongst these trends are sustainable digital transformation, AI personalization, AR interactive ads, immersive digital experiences with Web 3.0 virtual commerce and the rise of AI skin technology.

One especially exciting trend is the AI skin diagnostic technology. Perfect Corp.’s technology has been creating alongside leading dermatologists, amongst other experts. Perfect Corp. has invested heavily in AI machine learning that may propel this innovation forward in providing accuracy for its users.