{
  "id": 6279532,
  "title": "What to expect: Beauty tech’s next decade",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/09/08/what-to-expect-beauty-techs-next-decade",
  "topic": "business",
  "section": "Business",
  "published": "2026-09-08T12:00:00.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "Fast Company",
    "slug": "fast-company",
    "url": "https://www.fastcompany.com/91603010/what-to-expect-beauty-techs-next-decade"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "Paris' VivaTech, celebrating its 10th anniversary, served as a vivid reminder of beauty technology's evolution. During these years, I observed the event's growth alongside the innovations showcased. Once deemed futuristic, these ideas have now become integral to commerce, communication, and shopping. This year's gathering highlighted a pivotal shift: the next phase of innovation will be built upon the harmonious collaboration of diverse technologies. This concept is particularly evident in the beauty sector. Beauty technology has matured since virtual try-on first emerged, providing an immersive, real-time demonstration of how products would appear on an individual's face. Initially viewed as a spectacle, it gradually transitioned into a utility-driven tool. AI skin analysis and shade-matching technology enhanced this utility by helping consumers make more informed decisions about products. Today, beauty technology is entering its third phase: infrastructure. Capabilities that once functioned independently are now interconnected across product discovery, consultation, personalization, visualization, and purchase. The key to success lies in consumer expectation: a brand should intuitively understand customers' needs, provide relevant recommendations, and instill confidence before a purchase is made. This evolution underscores the importance of leadership in technology categories: they reach maturity when consumers no longer notice the technology but take it for granted, expecting the desired outcome instead. As beauty technology progressed from assisting customers in online stores to becoming a core part of the shopping journey, the next decade will focus on connection. Technologies will communicate with one another, specialized agents will combine their expertise, and commerce experiences will adapt dynamically to individual intent. The future of AI agents will not be a single all-encompassing entity but rather an ecosystem of agents, each with its own area of expertise. In beauty, this could mean a specialized agent interpreting a consumer's request, consulting the appropriate diagnostic, matching, and visualization capabilities, and returning a coherent recommendation. This agent-to-agent model will become the connective tissue of digital commerce, allowing brands and retailers to leverage the expertise of trusted domain agents whenever a customer's request requires deeper knowledge. Successful companies will focus on understanding the customer's decision and the expertise required to help them make it, while avoiding the temptation to create overly sophisticated systems lacking depth in critical moments. The key to success in this new era will be trust, driven by domain intelligence, transparency, and the quality of recommendations.",
  "summary": "Returning to Paris for the 10th anniversary of VivaTech felt like looking through a time capsule of innovation. Perfect Corp. has participated in VivaTech throughout its history. During that time, I watched the event grow alongside many of the technologies presented there. Ideas that once attracted crowds because they seemed futuristic are now becoming part of the infrastructure through which…",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}