It has become commonplace to hear about artificial intelligence (AI) reshaping industries, with recent reports crediting it with reshaping science, healthcare, and the legal field, to name just a few. However, some experts believe the word “reshaping” doesn’t go far enough to communicate the impact AI is having in the business world and beyond.

Yvette Schmitter, Co-Founder and Managing Partner at Fusion Collective, believes that AI’s influence on the beauty industry reveals its true — and unsettling — impact.

“While AI reshapes beauty, it also redefines it in ways that leave too many of us out,” Schmitter shares. “In a recent study, the Washington Post fed prompts like ‘beautiful woman’ to AI image generators — Midjourney, DALL-E, and Stable Diffusion — and the results were sobering. Picture after picture showed slender, young, and light-skinned women. Only 2 percent of these images showed visible signs of aging, and a mere 9 percent showed dark skin tones.”

Schmitter is a former Digital Architecture Partner at PwC who believes technology must serve everyone — regardless of gender, race, culture, or socioeconomic background. She excels at demystifying the complex, making technologies like AI and cloud computing not just understandable but transformative. Schmitter believes innovation isn’t about shiny new tools but about unlocking potential, leveling playing fields, and ensuring underrepresented voices have a seat at the table where decisions are made.

Schmitter sees the Washington Post’s findings as an excellent example of how hidden biases in AI redefine industries and leave certain demographics of consumers behind.

“In AI’s vision, beauty doesn’t look like most of us,” she says. “It doesn’t see the beauty in our wrinkles, the richness of dark skin, or the brilliance of bodies that don’t fit narrow standards. I can’t help but wonder, where do I — and so many others — fit into this algorithm’s idea of beauty?”

The fallout from AI’s ethics issues

AI’s limited view of beauty stems from an often-cited ethical problem. Few people in the business world seem ready to acknowledge this problem, let alone take action to address or solve it.

“Dreams of a seamless digital world where intelligent systems serve customers, streamline enterprises, and innovate at the speed of thought are commonplace when debating the future of artificial intelligence,” says Schmitter. “But let’s face it: AI is a remarkable power we still don’t fully comprehend. More than 50 percent of executives admit they are very concerned about AI’s ethical risks. And that uncertainty is a risk we can no longer ignore.”

Recent studies show that Schmitter’s concerns about ethics and AI are more than merited. A 2022 survey conducted by the IBM Institute for Business Value revealed that companies have good intentions regarding ethics and AI, but are not taking the necessary steps to implement them. While nearly 80 percent of CEOs who participated in the survey said they are “prepared” to integrate AI ethics into their AI practices, less than 25 percent have operationalized AI ethics. By ignoring the need for ethical development on the front end, they are assuming a tech debt that has already proven to be problematic.

“Businesses and technology leaders face a significant challenge in the quickly changing field of artificial intelligence: developing inclusive, ethical AI solutions that genuinely benefit a range of demographics,” Schmitter warns.

The role consumers play in reshaping AI

When tech companies allow AI development to outpace ethics, biases like those the technology has contributed to issues within the beauty industry are amplified. After all, because AI is automated, so are its biases, reinforcing structural injustices without hesitation. 

But developers aren’t the only ones who can play a role in encouraging AI to understand and celebrate diversity. As Schmitter explains, users must also decide how much they are willing to let AI and its biases define.

“We each need to choose whether we will take steps to truly understand AI or passively consume it and follow it like sheep,” Schmitter says. “AI isn’t waiting for us to catch up. It’s evolving minute by minute. Every new feature and algorithm reveals both possibilities and hidden risks.”

Schmitter points to active engagement as a critical step for those who want to contribute to a world where AI can be trusted. She encourages everyone to dive in and explore AI tools, questioning what they say about us and speaking up when it falls short of the truth.

“By engaging actively, we learn to see AI’s edges and to feel when it’s overstepping,” Schmitter explains. “AI doesn’t question itself, no matter how wrong it may be, so we must be its counterbalance. Let’s make questioning second nature, treating AI as an advisor instead of an oracle. It’s how we stay ahead, remaining intentional about what parts of our lives we’re willing to let AI touch.”