Beauty Meets AI: How Sephora Is Personalising Online Shopping
Updated: Sep 18
What if AI could become your beauty advisor?
Buying beauty products online can be surprisingly difficult. A foundation may look perfect on screen but turn out to be the wrong shade, while a skincare product that works for one person may not suit another. Artificial intelligence (AI) is changing the way consumers shop for beauty products. Rather than simply selling products online, Sephora has increasingly integrated AI and digital technologies into its customer journey, from personalised recommendations and virtual try-ons to AI-powered beauty assistance.
Sephora's approach is particularly interesting because its AI strategy focuses on reducing uncertainty while making online shopping more personalised. However, with competitors such as MECCA and Ulta Beauty also investing in personalisation and AI, innovation alone does not guarantee effectiveness. This blog examines how effectively Sephora uses AI, how it compares with competitors, and the ethical challenges that come with increasingly personalised beauty shopping.
How is Sephora using AI?
From virtual try-ons to AI beauty assistants. Sephora’s use of AI extends across multiple stages of the digital customer journey. One of its most recognisable applications is the Virtual Artist, which allows customers to virtually try on makeup before purchasing. The technology uses facial recognition to identify features such as the eyes, lips, and cheeks, allowing consumers to experiment with different products and shades (Sephora, n.d.).
This technology addresses one of the biggest challenges of online beauty shopping: consumers cannot physically test a product before purchasing. Virtual Artist therefore provides a more interactive way to evaluate products and potentially
reduces uncertainty around product selection. This technology attracted significant engagement, reportedly generating more than 200 million virtual shade try-ons and 8.5 million visits within 2 years of launching the app in 2016 (Parsani, n.d.).
Sephora has also incorporated AI into personalised product discovery. Its AI Beauty Chat allows customers to interact with an AI-powered assistant for beauty guidance and product recommendations (Sephora, 2026). Rather than relying entirely on traditional search and filters, customers can communicate their needs conversationally.
More recently, Sephora has expanded this approach beyond its own website. In 2026, the retailer launched an AI-enhanced Sephora experience within ChatGPT, allowing customers to receive curated beauty advice and product recommendations. Customers who choose to link their Beauty Insider account can receive recommendations informed by their existing preferences. Sephora reports that its global community includes more than 80 million active members worldwide, giving the retailer a substantial customer base for personalised digital experiences (Sephora, 2026).
Is Sephora’s AI actually effective?
The effectiveness of Sephora’s AI can be assessed through engagement, customer experience and conversion. Beyond Virtual Artist, Sephora has used conversational AI to reduce friction throughout the customer journey. Its Facebook Messenger Reservation Assistant contributed to an 11% increase in booking rates, demonstrating how conversational technology can encourage customers to move from interaction towards conversion (Parsani, P, n.d.). The technology also helped consumers navigate Sephora's online shopping experience and discover products more easily (Azfar, n.d.).
Personalisation is another key strength. By using information such as browsing behaviour, previous purchases and customer preferences, Sephora can tailor recommendations to individual shoppers (Patov, 2024). This is particularly valuable in beauty, where consumers can face decision fatigue when choosing between thousands of products.
Sephora has also applied AI to its broader digital marketing strategy. AI-generated landing pages targeting specific search queries reportedly increased organic search visibility for effective keywords by 6%, demonstrating how AI can support customer acquisition as well as the shopping experience (Parsani, n.d.).
However, AI adoption alone does not guarantee effectiveness. Sephora's success is better demonstrated when its technology solves a genuine customer problem, such as uncertainty about a product, difficulty finding relevant options or needing personalised advice. Overall, Sephora's AI appears most effective when it makes the shopping experience easier and more relevant, rather than simply adding technology for the sake of innovation.
How does Sephora compare?
Sephora is operating in a beauty market where personalised digital experiences are becoming increasingly common. MECCA, for example, has invested heavily in connecting its online and in-store customer journeys. Through Salesforce, MECCA uses customer data to personalise experiences across its website, emails, and mobile app, reportedly delivering millions of personalised experiences. Its share of omni-shoppers also increased from around 12% to more than 30% over three years (Salesforce, n.d.).
Ulta Beauty, however, is taking an aggressive approach to AI. Its Quazi platform uses AI to provide personalised product and offer recommendations, virtual beauty assistance and personalised search using natural language processing (Ulta Beauty, n.d.). In 2026, Ulta also launched Ulta AI, an AI shopping assistant powered by Gemini, using insights from more than 46 million members to provide personalised product guidance. Its products are also becoming shoppable through Google's AI Mode and Gemini (Ulta Beauty, 2026).
This suggests Sephora is keeping pace with the leaders rather than clearly dominating the market. Its ChatGPT integration is innovative, but competitors are rapidly developing comparable AI-powered shopping experiences.
The ethical side of beauty AI
The increasing personalisation of beauty shopping also creates ethical concerns. Sephora’s digital strategy relies on customer data to create more relevant experiences, including information such as browsing behaviour, previous purchases, and customer preferences to personalise recommendations (Patov, 2024). Sephora's new ChatGPT experience takes this further by allowing customers to connect their Beauty Insider account so recommendations can be informed by their existing preferences (Sephora, 2026).
While this can make shopping more convenient, it raises questions about privacy and transparency. Consumers should understand what information is being used and have meaningful control over how their data contributes to personalised recommendations.
There are also concerns around AI-powered facial analysis. Sephora’s Virtual Artist uses facial recognition technology to enable virtual makeup try-ons, creating a more immersive experience while raising questions about how facial data is handled (Sephora, n.d.). AI recommendations also need to work effectively across different skin tones and beauty needs. Sephora should therefore balance personalisation with privacy, transparency, and inclusivity, rather than assuming that more data always creates a better experience.
What could Sephora do next?
Sephora's next opportunity is not simply to introduce more AI, but to make its existing technology more transparent, inclusive, and commercially useful.
First, Sephora could make AI recommendations more transparent by explaining why a particular product has been suggested. This would give customers greater confidence in recommendations while making the increasingly personalised shopping experience feel less like a “black box”.
Second, Sephora could continue improving the accuracy and inclusivity of its virtual try-on and recommendation tools across different skin tones and facial features. This would strengthen the value of AI by ensuring that personalisation works effectively for a broader range of customers.
Finally, Sephora could focus on connecting its different AI tools into one seamless journey. Rather than treating Virtual Artist, AI Beauty Chat, personalised recommendations, and conversational shopping as separate features, integrating them could allow a customer to move from:
discovery → personalised advice → virtual try-on → purchase with less friction.
So, is Sephora getting AI right?
Sephora shows how AI can move beyond a marketing buzzword to address genuine problems within online beauty shopping. Virtual Artist makes product discovery more interactive, personalised recommendations make large product ranges easier to navigate, and tools such as AI Beauty Chat and the ChatGPT integration are changing how customers discover products.
However, Sephora is not operating alone. MECCA has developed sophisticated omnichannel personalisation, while Ulta Beauty is rapidly expanding its AI-powered shopping capabilities. Sephora therefore needs to continue innovating while ensuring that personalisation does not come at the expense of privacy, transparency, or inclusivity.
Ultimately, Sephora appears to be using AI effectively because its technology is connected to real customer needs. The strongest opportunity is not simply using more AI, but using it to help consumers make better, easier, and more confident beauty decisions.
References
Azfar, R. (n.d.). Sephora wields AI for new wave shopping experiences, innovating in personalization | retail dive. Www.Retaildive.Com. https://www.retaildive.com/ex/mobilecommercedaily/sephora-leverages-facebook-messenger-and-ai-to-help-consumers-navigate-ecommerce
Lianna Albrizio. (2024, September 4). Sephora reopens Melbourne central flagship store | happi. Happi. https://www.happi.com/breaking-news/sephora-reopens-melbourne-central-flagship-store/
Meet AI Beauty Chat. (n.d.). Sephora.Com. https://www.sephora.com/beauty/ai-beauty-chat
Parsani, P. (n.d.). Beauty and the bot: How sephora reimagined customer experience with AI. Cut-the-Saas.Com. https://cut-the-saas.com/ai/beauty-and-the-bot-how-sephora-reimagined-customer-experience-with-ai
Patov, A. (2024, September 4). How sephora enhances customer experience (CX) through personalization and digital innovation. Renascence. https://www.renascence.io/journal/how-sephora-enhances-customer-experience-cx-through-personalization-and-digital-innovation
Quazi. (n.d.). Quazi | company | ulta beauty. Ulta.Com. from https://www.ulta.com/company/quazi
Sales Force. (n.d.). MECCA builds loyalty into every touchpoint. Salesforce.Com. https://www.salesforce.com/au/customer-stories/mecca/
Sephora Newsroom. (2026, March 24). Sephora app in ChatGPT brings a new personalized beauty experience – sephora newsroom. Sephora.Com. https://newsroom.sephora.com/sephora-app-in-chatgpt-brings-a-new-personalized-beauty-experience/
Ulta Beauty. (2026, April 22). Ulta Beauty and Google Introduce Gemini-Enabled Shopping Experiences That Streamline Beauty Discovery and Purchase. Ulta Beauty, Inc. https://www.ulta.com/investor/news-events/press-releases/detail/226/ulta-beauty-and-google-introduce-gemini-enabled-shopping
Loved this!!! - Your opening example of choosing the wrong foundation shade made the value of virtual try-on really relatable! I also appreciated your focus on making these tools accurate across different skin tones / types, showing why inclusivity matters alongside convenience !
This was really insightful and easy to read, great post! - Emily
Such an interesting read! I hadn’t realised how much Sephora was already using AI across the customer journey. I especially liked the point about AI being most effective when it actually solves a customer problem rather than just being used for the sake of innovation.
So Interesting! I will have to try the virtual try on.