Unfortunately, beauty brands are not good enough to use AI, praised Danish AI expert Jonathan Løw states. Here’s the easy way to do it better.

Løw is a Danish serial entrepreneur, keynote speaker, and bestselling author. Over the past decade, he has been focused on bringing artificial intelligence out of the tech-hype bubble and transforming it into practical, everyday business tools. His background includes co-founding several tech ventures, including one of Denmark’s early generative AI companies, and regularly working with brands to help them move from being merely “ready for change” to actively driving it.

Are beauty brands in general ‘good enough’ to use AI? Or not?

– Most beauty brands, he says, are not truly good enough yet because they are still trapped in the hype cycle. There is a massive tendency for AI initiatives in the corporate world to look a bit like The Emperor’s New Clothes. Brands frequently launch flashy, front-facing AI tools—like basic virtual try-ons or superficial quiz bots—mainly for marketing purposes rather than building actual foundational capabilities.

So, what’s the one thing they should be better at to really improve daily operations?

– They must shift their focus toward internal workflow automation and ‘down-to-earth’ AI integration. To drastically improve daily operations, beauty executives need to focus on building custom AI agents that streamline tedious, repetitive backend tasks. This means utilising AI for sophisticated inventory forecasting, automated regulatory compliance checks, supply chain logistics, and hyper-personalised post-purchase customer service workflows rather than just front-end marketing gimmicks.

And apart from brands, how can a beauty salon make use of AI in the best possible way?

– A salon or a therapist shouldn’t try to replace the human touch, but use AI to eliminate the heavy administrative friction of running a local business. The best applications for smaller clinics could be, first of all, smart booking and follow-ups. AI systems that handle scheduling seamlessly, but also draft personalised skin-routine follow-up texts or emails based on a client’s specific treatments.

– Secondly, content creation. To use specialised language tools to easily generate high-quality social media posts, localised newsletters, or blog updates without needing a marketing agency.

– Last but not least: micro-insights. To review business data through simple AI analytical helpers to find out exactly when your peak hours are or which localised product bundles sell best.

What’s the most common question you get from your clients? And what do you answer?

– ‘Where do we even begin with AI without wasting our time or money?’

– My answer is always to ignore the tech hype and look for your biggest bottleneck. I tell them to sit down with their team, map out the three most time-consuming, repetitive tasks they hate doing every week, and solve only those with targeted AI tools first. You have to establish a common language around AI and move from being change-passive to change-active by starting with real, micro-level problems, Løw explains. He continues:

– I always like to remind people of the importance of ‘listening louder.’ True innovation in the beauty space happens when we stop listening to the loudest tech voices in the room and start listening closer to the quiet, everyday operational problems our staff and clients face. Technology should always serve people, never the other way around.

Jonathan Løw’s extra industry insights

– The most critical thing for a beauty executive today is to stop treating AI as an IT or marketing project and start treating it as an organisational culture shift.


Read more good examples shared by Løw in this Fagbladet Kosmetik article. It’s in Danish and two years old, but, as Løw puts it, ‘the core philosophy of the cases mentioned remains relevant: moving AI from hype to everyday practice.’