How Beauty Brands Are Starting to Use AI in Their Marketing

Insights from TFWA Cannes 2025

At TFWA Cannes this year, artificial intelligence wasn’t presented as a bold creative revolution. Instead, it appeared quietly, in translation workflows, content preparation, product referencing, and the backstage operations that shape how beauty brands communicate.

Across our interviews, it became clear that AI is entering beauty through practical doors first. The companies we spoke with aren’t looking to replace their creative instincts; they’re using AI to make the work around creativity faster, lighter and more scalable. What emerged was a picture of an industry adopting AI deliberately, not dramatically.

AI Today: Quiet Adoption, Real Impact

PATYKA is among the brands using AI in small but meaningful ways. Their marketing team applies AI for translations, internal referencing, background preparation and caption variations.

“We use AI for translations and preparing content internally,  not to replace creative work, but to speed up the steps around it,”

says Clara Giusta of PATYKA. This reflects a broader sentiment across the industry: AI is becoming a support system for day-to-day marketing operations rather than the centrepiece of campaigns.

AI for Creative Support, Not Creative Control

Atelier Rebul takes a more integrated approach, describing AI as “another colleague within the company.” The heritage fragrance house uses AI both internally and through its agencies yet never markets its campaigns as AI-driven.

“AI is basically another colleague in the company,”

says Deniz Sezer Günay, Global Customer Experience Lead at Atelier Rebul.

“We don’t shout that a campaign is AI-driven. What matters is whether it’s distinctive.”

For them, AI sits behind the scenes, expanding creative options while protecting the brand’s heritage-driven identity.

Organic-First Brands Are Opening the Door to AI

For some companies, AI represents a future tool rather than a present necessity. marocMaroc remains committed to organic imagery and traditional artistic direction yet sees potential in using AI for customer service and marketing intelligence.

“We’re not using AI for visuals yet, we prefer real photography,”

says Fatine Amor of marocMaroc.

“But for customer service and research, AI can be really useful. We’re already looking at tools for chatbots and consumer insights.”

Their approach reflects many brands in a transitional phase: open to AI, but protective of visual authenticity.

Where Beauty Sees AI Going Next

Across interviews, brands highlighted several areas where AI is likely to play a growing role.

Customer service is one of the clearest opportunities, with brands expecting AI tools to handle frontline communication, product recommendations and routine support questions.

Personalisation is another major frontier. Chouchou Tokyo anticipates using AI for diagnostic support, skin tracking and tailored routines.

“We see AI becoming important for skin tracking and personalised routines, it’s not something we use today, but we see where it’s going,”

notes Olivia Jo of CHOUCHOU TOKYO. Finally, content adaptation is emerging as a practical win. Both PATYKA and Atelier Rebul note that AI could help scale assets across regions, adapting backgrounds, captions and formats to meet the demands of global campaigns.

Why Beauty Isn’t Rushing And Why It Still Will

Despite widespread interest, many beauty brands remain cautious. Beauty is a highly visual, emotionally driven category, and marketers are protective of the nuance that defines it. But the operational benefits of AI, speed, efficiency and adaptability, are becoming too strong to ignore. AI’s integration into beauty is starting to resemble the adoption patterns of email, Canva and social scheduling tools: gradual at first, then suddenly essential.

The Takeaway from TFWA Cannes

Artificial intelligence may not be transforming beauty marketing overnight, but it is reshaping the work behind it. Across the brands we spoke with, AI is helping teams to move faster, personalise better and scale more efficiently, all without compromising their core creative identity.

At TFWA Cannes, one message came through clearly:

AI is no longer a question of “if” but of “how soon and how thoughtfully.”