Can AI Build You a Skin Care Routine?

Everywhere you turn these days, it’s “AI this” and “AI that” – and it’s warranted. It’s exciting to see an emerging technology and watch how just about every industry finds some way to take advantage of it. But you might be surprised by how often you can use it day-to-day too – everything from asking it to build you a grocery list based on a few recipes to helping you find the perfect wording for your next party invite. And yes, you can even use it for your skin care…with some caution, of course.

How Can You Use AI for Your Skin Care Routine?

One of the most common frustrations among people, especially those who haven’t thought much about skin care before, is that they don’t know where to start or how to plan a routine that’s suitable for their skin. If that sounds like you, try firing up your AI tool of choice.

For an AI-built skin care routine, you can tell the AI tool all about your skin care priorities and issues and ask it to create a weekly skin care routine for you to follow. Ask it for a weekly skin care routine so it can account for things like exfoliating a few days a week or a weekly mask.

You can be as broad or specific as you want. You could keep it general and ask it what steps you should follow (AKA cleansing, then toning, then a brightening serum, then moisturizing) or you can go as far as asking for specific product recommendations based on your issues. You could also ask the AI what ingredients to look for to address certain issues, like what skin care ingredients are best for controlling acne or reducing hyperpigmentation.

You could also go about it from the opposite direction: tell the AI tool what your current skin care routine is, what your skin’s needs and issues are, and ask how you can modify it to better fit your skin.

Pros and Cons of Using an AI-Recommended Skin Care Routine

AI can be an incredibly useful tool, but it’s not magic and it’s not perfect. There are benefits to using it to critique or lay out your skin care plan, but there are some downsides to consider too.

Pro: Saving Yourself the Research Time

There is ample (and I mean ample) information out there about skin care routines, what’s best for which skin types, how to get the most benefit from your routine, and so on. But who has the time to comb through it all? AI does, that’s who. It can be a great way to get a straightforward idea of the skin care routine you should follow.

Pro: Refinable Results

A key benefit of AI over simple search engines is that your answers or results are buildable. You can ask the tool follow-up questions like, “are you sure that’s the best routine for me?” or, “that’s too time-consuming, give me a simpler routine,” or, “make it more anti-aging focused.” This lets you be a bit more targeted and clearer so you can get a skin care routine that’s ideal for your skin.

Con: The Reliability is Hit or Miss

AI can give you some great info, but a problem that has plagued it from its early days and continues to now is the accuracy. AI pulls information from numerous sources throughout the web, but so far, it isn’t great at differentiating between reliable and nonreliable sources, and you don’t know where it’s getting the information that it’s giving you.

Because of this, it’s hard to know if it’s giving you recommendations from a dermatologist or from some random page that was slapped together, or from a page that was intended for a specific situation rather than the average person’s skin care. Plus, AI has a tendency to actually make up fictional information to fill in the gaps of what it can’t find elsewhere.

Con: Bias from Sources

As I mentioned, AI pulls from what it sees online, and if that information is biased (as it can often be), the answer you get from your AI tool will be biased too, making it potentially less accurate. When it comes to your skin care routine, this could especially come into play when you ask AI for product recommendations. If one brand happens to have more widely read content about their products, the AI might be more likely to recommend those products even if they aren’t the right fit for your skin.

The Smart Way to Use AI for Your Skin Care Routine

AI can be a useful tool, but the trick is to take its answers as suggestions rather than gospel. Don’t assume everything it tells you is true.

Use your AI’s recommended skin care routine as a starting point. You could reach out to your aesthetician or a skin care expert online to ask if they agree with the recommendations before you follow them. You can also use the AI routine to begin a trial-and-error process. Try out the recommendations it gives you and see if it’s giving you the results you want, and if not, make some changes. You could even go back to the AI tool to refine your routine by saying, for example, “this routine didn’t help very much with my skin dryness, what can I do differently?”

Ultimately, while you shouldn’t take everything AI says as a fact, it can be a fantastic tool for planning your skin care, especially if you’re stuck where you are and aren’t sure what to try next or if you’re having a hard time getting started. And if you need some help sorting out fact from fiction, book a virtual appointment with our dermatologist.