Flaws Or Flawlessness: How AI Is Rewiring Perceptions And Shifting Beauty Standards

Technologies have always shaped the way humans view themselves and others.

Cave drawings may have been the earliest signs of that impulse, but in more recent history, magazines and television spread and reinforced narrow beauty standards. Social media tightened them further, prizing faces that looked poreless and chiseled on camera to match the proliferation of filters. And Zoom, where users stared at themselves for hours rather than for a quick smartphone snap, contributed to spikes in cosmetic procedures.

Now, artificial intelligence, which is threatening jobs, acting as a matchmaker between people and robots, blurring the boundaries between humans and machines, and generating synthetic faces at unprecedented scale, is poised to scramble beauty standards again. The Future Laboratory heralds the dawn of the Synthocene Era, describing it as “a new epoch defined by the rise of synthetic intelligence, where machine intelligence becomes a pervasive, active force shaping culture, creativity and human experience.”

As the beauty industry watches AI’s growing influence on appearance and business, for the latest edition of our ongoing series posing questions relevant to indie beauty, we asked 13 beauty and AI executives, consultants and founders the following: How do you envision AI shifting beauty standards? How should indie brands respond to a world where authenticity and artificiality become harder to distinguish?

Robin Albin Founder and Brand Strategist, Insurgents

Confession: This scares the bejesus out of me. Look, the impact of unrealistic, idealized and emotionally damaging beauty standards is nothing new. The controversy over airbrushing and Photoshopping has been raging for decades. But AI is hugely and dangerously different.

With Photoshop, we argued about if and how much retouching was acceptable. Sure, Photoshop created unattainable standards, but at least you could theoretically understand how the image was manipulated. With AI, we're arguing about whether the face shown actually exists at all. We're moving from "here's what beautiful looks like" to "here's what you could look like if you were beautiful according to algorithm X trained on dataset Y."

AI-generated faces are Frankensteined from datasets trained on millions of images, composites of algorithmic "perfection" that aren't even based on one real person's features. You're not comparing yourself to a retouched model anymore. You're comparing yourself to a statistical amalgamation of features optimized to maximize dopamine hits.

Here's the really fucked up part: AI beauty tools learn from engagement data. The more people use filters that slim faces, enlarge eyes, smooth skin to porcelain, the more the algorithm decides "this is what people want to look like," and it generates more of it.

Cosmetic procedures chase the AI aesthetic. Then AI trains on those procedures. The standards get more extreme. It's a runaway feedback loop with no human quarterback. A vicious cycle of shame and addiction.

We're creating a generation that will eventually not know what unfiltered faces look like, including their own. The societal damage is already happening, especially to vulnerable young women. On the rise are:

Cosmetic procedures on teenagers chasing filter faces
Increased rates of body dysmorphia correlated with social media use
Entire generations with distorted perception of normal human appearance
The collapse of "looking good" as a concept for how you look

Beauty brands, indie included, are largely complicit through silence or actively participating for commercial gain and buzz. The question is whether enough people wake up to how damaging this is before an entire generation loses the ability to recognize their own reflection as acceptable.

But AI-seduced body dysmorphia isn't exclusively an issue for the young and impressionable. On the Dec. 11 episode of NPR’s “Wild Card with Rachel Martin” podcast, Oscar-winning actress Jamie Lee Curtis talked about the negative impact of AI images on older women like herself, the disfigurement of women promoted by the plastic surgery industry aided by AI.

Women contemplating plastic surgery are now bringing in AI-generated images of themselves as reference. Surgeons report patients asking for results that aren't surgically possible because the AI composite doesn't follow actual anatomical constraints. This leads to:

More procedures chasing impossible standards
Dissatisfaction even with "good" results because they don't match the AI
The uncanny valley effect: a realistic computer-generated face that seems a bit off or unsettling, though you can’t quite explain why
Economic exploitation, spending massive amounts chasing AI-generated youth

So, what should indie brands do? Ethical beauty brands have a moral obligation. If you're in the business of selling products related to appearance, you have a responsibility to refuse to make people hate what they see in the mirror.

When it comes to beauty standards and body image, the technology has outpaced our ability to use it responsibly. And we're doing damage we may not be able to undo.

I'd love to see the beauty industry—big players and indie alike—sign a pact to not use AI-generated or tech-augmented images in their campaigns.

Think about it: Credo Beauty just launched Credo Qualified, an annual verification ensuring manufacturing, testing, sourcing, labor and sustainability practices are done with rigor and transparency. Why not do something similar with AI images? That would mean:

No AI-generated models unless explicitly disclosed
No "try-on" tools that subtly enhance beyond the product effect
No before-and-afters that use different lighting, angles and subtle AI smoothing
Real unretouched images of real humans with real skin

Of course, by doing the right thing you risk tanking your conversion rates. Because brands using AI enhancement will show "better" results. The race to the bottom has never been faster.

I believe that there is an opportunity for brave brands willing to take it: make human imperfection the entire point. Not as performance. Not as aesthetic. As genuine philosophical opposition to AI perfection.

Sign me up for the brand that says, “We refuse to make you hate your face.” That's a mission worth building around, and one that will get more valuable as AI makes the alternative more dystopian.

Full disclosure: I'm a frequent user of AI. I think it's an amazing tool and resource. But, in a world of infinite AI-generated options, quality control and aesthetic judgment are mandatory. Full stop.

The brands that survive the next decade won't be the ones with the most sophisticated AI tools. They'll be the ones that remember what human faces actually look like and have the courage to show them.

PAMELIA LALL Founder, PJL Beauty House

AI isn’t just reshaping beauty standards; it’s transforming the entire infrastructure of how we create, diagnose and experience beauty. For decades, beauty norms were shaped by traditional media and industry gatekeepers. Today, in the emerging Synthocene Era, synthetic intelligence is generating new aesthetic codes at unprecedented speed, where identities, textures and faces can be rendered, remixed and optimized across both physical and digital realities.

Beauty is no longer static; it’s becoming fluid, adaptive and hyper-personalized. We’re already seeing this shift play out at trade shows, derm conferences, scientific panels, clinical testing labs and ingredient suppliers. AI-driven skin diagnosis, custom biotech molecules in formulations, package design, virtual sampling and instant product concepting are redefining innovation timelines and speed to market.

As a product innovator, it allows parallel tracking multiple phases rather than sequencing. On the consumer side, the way we shop has fundamentally changed, from algorithm-curated discovery to AI-powered shade matching, routine building and even the rise of synthetic influencers shaping purchasing behavior. The standards themselves are evolving in real time as people toggle between their physical identity and their digitally enhanced selves.

Consumers will increasingly explore multiple “selves” across physical and digital spaces, embracing fluid identities that evolve with context, mood and experience. Yet, as AI amplifies hyper-real, hyper-personalized imagery, it also heightens the tension between authenticity and artifice. This is where I think indie brands have a powerful opportunity. Instead of competing with machine-generated ideals, they can re-anchor beauty in what technology can’t replicate: human nuance, cultural specificity, craft, and emotional truth.

I believe the future belongs to brands that pair innovation with intention, leveraging AI to enhance product innovation and development, creativity and personalization while championing transparency, inclusive representation and real-world skin diversity. I believe AI will not erase authenticity; it will demand a deeper, more accountable version of it.

Indie brands that lean into this duality, embracing both technological possibility and human-centered values will define the next frontier of beauty. Indie brands that embrace technological possibilities while staying rooted in transparency, inclusivity and human-centered values won’t just keep pace with the future of beauty; they’ll help define and shape it.

DOMINICA BAIRD Brand Consultant and Department Chair, Business of Beauty and Fragrance, Savannah College of Art and Design

One of the ways I think about this moment is through the lens of art history. When photography was invented, it fundamentally changed painting. At first, painters competed with the camera by trying to be more realistic. Over time, art adapted by moving in the opposite direction, becoming increasingly abstract, symbolic, emotional and expressive. By the time you move from early realism to modern and abstract art, painting had evolved into something the camera simply could not replicate.

I believe beauty standards will undergo a similar shift in response to AI. As AI makes hyper-perfect, synthetic faces effortless to generate, I do not think the future of beauty is chasing even more perfection. I think we will crave what AI cannot convincingly reproduce: humanity and individuality.

I see signals of this already in growing online discourse reminiscing about pre-2000s film and television. People often point to natural teeth and the absence of plastic surgery and fillers as part of what made those faces feel distinctive.

This is especially important because younger consumers are far more skeptical of AI than many brands assume. In conversations with gen Z, there is clear frustration with how brands are currently using AI, particularly in advertising.

While younger consumers are often comfortable using AI themselves, they are openly annoyed by AI-generated ads. In a moment so obsessed with authenticity and cultural fluency, AI-generated content often feels lazy.

For brands, AI works when it is used with intention. Consumers appreciate AI when its role is clear and it genuinely helps, for example by improving shade matching or reducing friction in discovery.

LESLEY HOLMES Founder, Brand Strategist and Leadership Advisor, Beneath The Gloss

AI is already reshaping beauty standards, and it’s creating a growing tension between how people present online and how they look in real life. That gap is starting to distort how people see themselves and each other, and in some cases, it’s even preventing real-life connection because people are afraid their digital version doesn’t match their real one, as noted by many mental health experts and publications like Psychology Today.

At the same time, I’m seeing two parallel trends emerge. On one end, AI is accelerating a more synthetic, optimized look. On the other, there’s a clear countermovement where real, human beauty becomes more interesting precisely because everything else is starting to look the same. Freckles, asymmetry, texture and individuality stand out more in a world of AI-perfect faces.

You can see this tension in the rise of new AI retouching apps that market themselves as making you look like “you, just slightly better” rather than completely transformed. That shift signals a growing desire for technology that enhances without erasing humanity.

This is where indie brands have a real opportunity to go in hard:

Get super niche with your audience.
Use real humans in creative, not generic perfection.
Show the receipts that there are actual people in the ads and behind the brand.
Make it clear who is running the company and how decisions are made.

Consumers are savvy, and I believe the youngest generations will ultimately champion a return to a more authentic, human face of beauty. Or perhaps we’ll see a peaceful coexistence between the “real” self and an AI avatar, not passed off as reality, but treated as an alter ego.

Indie brands win by feeling human, grounded and authentic, and of course, by delivering products that actually work.

Kim Walls Fractional and Interim AI Leader, Chameleon Collective

As an MIT-certified AI Leadership Strategist, I may be one of the few people who feels genuinely hopeful about AI’s potential to shift beauty standards. I think AI could bring true humanity back into focus because what we accept as “real” is ultimately driven by human demand.

I’ve read a lot of industry forecasts for 2026, and while there’s plenty of variance, one theme keeps showing up: People want more human interaction again. Even more than that, they want transparency. We want to know the difference. Are we dealing with a human or a machine? Brands are already responding with disclosure cues and credibility signals, from labeling AI-assisted imagery to adding expert review and provenance to the content shoppers rely on.

AI is simply a tool. As marketers, we can use it to drive growth, but it does not change what makes us human. Our imperfections do. They’re where we derive character and beauty, and they’re the details that add intrigue to our relationships and depth to our communication.

We’re already seeing signals of an AI-powered swing away from perfection. There are tools that can take filtered, “perfect” images and add life’s texture back in, like wrinkles, visible pores, and hyperpigmentation, because people are rejecting the unreal look. Enhancor.ai is one example.

In parallel, we’re seeing the same demand for “human proof” in what we read: clear attribution, expert review and real accountability from content authors. Credibility layers like CertREV.com are emerging to meet that need.

Whether it’s AI-generated imperfection or humans showing their true selves without any “enhancement,” I think we’re heading toward a real shift. More people looking like real people across every platform. For indie brands, the most powerful response is to lead with trust, to be clear about what’s real versus AI-assisted and make authenticity feel aspirational again.

Celebrate real skin in real light. Build brands that give people permission to show up as themselves. Because when we’re staring at ourselves on endless Zoom calls or catching our reflection in the mirror mid-routine, maybe more people can experience less self-loathing, less insecurity, less anxiety and more moments of, “damn, I look good today.”

EFFIE ASAFU-ADJAYE Founder and Director, Beautiful Sparks

To me, AI raises the bar for impossible beauty standards. If it hasn't happened already, it's just a matter of time before people bring AI-generated photos to surgeons and aestheticians as references, trying to achieve cartoonish flawless features and unrealistically luminescent skin.

There will always be two camps: those who celebrate flawless perfection and those who celebrate "real" beauty. I sense that AI models and influencers will become completely normalized and future debates will center on how flawless AI models should look versus how "real" or imperfect.

The space is moving so quickly, I'm forming my view in real time. I feel brands should create guidelines about what AI use aligns with their values and what doesn't, then reassess every six months. Every brand needs to decide where they draw the line based on what feels right for their team and customers. They should establish guidelines for all touchpoints, from customer support to content, covering when they will and won't use AI, so they don't overstep without thinking.

When it comes to AI imagery for models and products, there's still a gray area about what's misleading imagery and marketing with AI and what's not. It'll be interesting to see how lawmakers define those boundaries. That will be a definitive moment, though they're also struggling to keep up with the pace of change.

If I put on my futurist hat, at the rate things are moving, my wild prediction is that using 100% real models and products in shoots will become the new luxury. Brands with deep pockets will go against the grain, positioning real humans and traditional photo shoots as premium and prestigious, the same way "handmade" and "hand-crafted" signal quality now.

REBECCA BARTLETT Principal and Executive Creative Director, Bartlett Brands

It’s not just AI reshaping beauty standards. Retouching, face-tuning and filters have already been doing the job for years. Plus, today’s copy-paste menu of cosmetic procedures and tweakments, suddenly everyone’s faces seriously look the same.

At Bartlett Brands, we think the short-term backlash is predictable: “flaws are the new pretty.” New imperfections will be reclaimed as status symbols. Of course, this will also become another trend, another formula, another way to train the model as it has before.

Brands won’t win by chasing sameness in reverse either. They win by knowing exactly who they’re for, owning a point of view so clearly that the look is inevitable: no filters, no formulas and no algorithms calling the shots.

Anna Vale Fractional Brand Marketing and Communications Leadership Consultant

Staying true is the new beauty standard. Beauty brands are balancing a lot right now between changing shopping behavior, customers having more choice than ever before and AI influencing every part of beauty. Like every cultural shift, brands should test and learn how they fit into the shifting landscape. They need to remain true to their “why” and be unapologetically honest when and how they use AI.

Brands don’t need to play into beauty standards but instead optimize the customer experience with AI platform integration while showing up in real life and meeting their customer and community where they are. There are many ways that brands can positively support a customer’s perception of themselves through education, empowering their knowledge, chat integrations on their website as well as diagnostic tools.

That said, nothing will replace human connection and true integrity. It’s a balance that every brand will need to define for their own customer journey.

RACHEL MARTIN Founder, RemCal Insights

AI is pushing beauty standards in two directions at once. On one side, image models keep serving up a narrow version of “beautiful.” On the other, people are more skeptical of anything that looks too perfect and are quick to say “that can’t be real” because years of Instagram filters have trained them to spot what feels fake.

In my work across wellness categories, consumers are shifting from “Do I look perfect?” to “Do I look and feel healthy for the long term?” Parents talk about skin health and sleep, gen Z talks about mood and energy, and older consumers talk about staying active and not becoming a burden. Beauty is getting absorbed into this broader whole-health mindset.

For indie brands, the opportunity is to use AI in the background, e.g., personalizing routines, getting the right shade and reducing trial and error, while keeping real people, real skin and real conditions front and center to your visuals. In a world where authenticity and artificiality are hard to tell apart, the brands that win will use AI to cut guesswork, not to create synthetic perfection.

Pippa Harman Co-Founder and CEO, Renude

We are living through a time of immense change with the evolution of AI. The beauty industry has been experiencing consumer mindset shifts over recent years, with more curiosity, discernment and research put into purchasing decisions than ever before. Consumer trust is crucial to succeed in beauty, and brands must act responsibly when utilizing AI to ensure they don’t lose this.

There is a risk that AI-generated images will perpetuate the unrealistic beauty standard that we have been trying to dismantle in recent years. AI is trained on real-world data and so, unless specifically trained otherwise, is likely to contain the same bias that has been historically displayed by the beauty industry towards a certain body type, age, skin tone, texture, etc.

If brands opt to use AI-generated models, I believe this should be stated, and they should deliberately be created to reflect real human skin (pores, texture, etc.), with relevant representation of skin tone, age, body type, gender, skin concern, etc. As a brand, if you feel nervous to declare a model image to be AI-generated, then it’s worth considering whether this is the right choice for your brand.

If you decide that all your model images will be real people, there is an opportunity to celebrate that in more creative ways. For example, just like the old Boden catalogs used to have Q&A with the models about their favorite breakfast, etc., are there interesting ways to highlight the human behind the face?

If you feel confident to do so, you could also decide to include your brand stance on model imagery as part of your core values so your audience knows your position on this and can trust that what they see is real.

Jennifer Lacenera Founder, Jennifer Lacenera Consulting

Magazine covers and poreless Instagram faces have already shaped what people think beauty should look like. Now technology is taking that to the next level, making it harder than ever to tell what is real and what is not.

For indie brands, this can feel intimidating, but it’s also an opportunity. Technology can help behind the scenes with research, product innovation and content creation while saving on costs. When every dollar counts, working smarter allows brands to be resourceful.

The brands that stand out are the ones that stay authentic. Glow Recipe, Dove, Hello Sunday and IT Cosmetics have built strong communities by celebrating real people, diverse faces and honest stories. Showing real skin, texture and moments, and proving that products perform is what builds trust and keeps audiences engaged.

AI will change how beauty looks and blurs the lines between real and synthetic, but indie brands don’t need to compete with perfect, generated faces. They can use technology behind the scenes to innovate faster, create captivating product photography and videos that grab attention and save costs, while staying true to the human storytelling that connects with people.

Technology may shape the landscape, but authenticity and performance are what make a brand memorable and lasting.

KATE ASSARAF Founder and CEO, Dip

We are entering a world where the most “beautiful” faces might not even belong to humans, and that's really sad to me. It creates a dangerous baseline because no one can compete with a synthetic ideal. The irony is that the more artificial things get, the more people crave what feels real. That is the tension indie brands can win on.

Indie beauty was built on trust, on real conversations with store owners, hairstylists and brand founders who actually use the products. Customers still want that. They want someone to tell them the truth about their hair, their texture, their scalp and their routine. AI cannot replicate the empathy that comes from a human solving a problem with you in real time, in person and the accountability that comes with it.

CHERIE BUZIAK Owner and CEO, BeautyEdge LLC

In 2021, I created a future trends concept for a client and called it "Avatress.” The concept was around the blurred lines of protection from digital influences while embracing technology.

As we move forward, keeping community engagement intact and allowing ourselves to "be human" with emotions, creativity, etc., while embracing AI innovation can coexist. I would also keep an eye on the explorations of Elon Musk and Neuralink. Something of that technology could influence the future of beauty and AI.

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