I read an article from Salsify recently called The Sunscreen That AI Forgot.
During a live demonstration, ChatGPT was asked to recommend sunscreen and skipped over Coppertone altogether.
The product hadn’t disappeared, of course. What had changed was the way it was being discovered.
With traditional search, consumers were largely presented with a page of results and decided which links to explore. AI-assisted search can do more interpretation before and alongside those results, working through the question and helping determine which products, sources or answers are surfaced.
That becomes particularly interesting when the search itself is more detailed.
Instead of typing something like “SPF 50 sunscreen”, someone might ask about where they’re going, what they’ll be doing, their skin type, ingredients they want to avoid and how much they want to spend.
That’s not really a neat keyword search anymore. It’s much closer to the beginning of a conversation.
And when AI is interpreting a detailed question on the consumer’s behalf, the quality and specificity of the information available about a product become part of how well that product can be understood and considered.
That immediately made me think about skincare.
Because while AI search may be changing quickly, the communication problem underneath it is much more familiar.
Online skincare communication should be as useful as a good consultation
As a skin therapist, I’ve always worked from a fairly simple premise:
Ask relevant questions. Identify the problem. Explain it clearly. Then offer an appropriate solution.
In sales language, you might call that solution selling. But in skincare, I’ve always thought of it more simply as helping someone understand what is happening to their skin before suggesting what they might do about it.
Anticipating the questions someone is likely to ask is part of that too. When you can explain what they’re wondering about before they’ve even asked, it shows that you understand their situation and helps build trust.
If someone is standing in front of you saying her skin has become drier and more sensitive since menopause, you would naturally want to know a little more before recommending a product. What is she already using? What’s changed? Is she trying to manage dryness, sensitivity, pigmentation, or all three? Does she want to continue with active skincare, or is her current routine already doing too much?
That’s the difference between providing information and giving useful advice, and I think the same principle applies online.
A consumer may arrive at a product page or blog with a question that contains far more than a keyword. She may be asking whether vitamin A is still appropriate for her now, whether one serum is more suitable than another, whether she can keep using a product she has tolerated for years, or whether the changes she’s seeing mean it might be time to rethink her routine altogether.
Simply explaining what an ingredient does may not be enough on its own. The information also needs to help her understand whether it applies to her.
Is your expertise visible online?
Most skincare brands already have a great deal of expertise inside the business.
Product developers know why a formula was created. Educators know who it’s best suited to. Skin therapists and clinicians know the questions people ask before they buy and the distinctions that help them choose well.
The question is how much of that thinking makes its way into the content a consumer can actually find.
A product page might tell me that a serum contains retinal, peptides and ceramides. That’s useful, but I may still want to know whether it suits skin that has become more reactive.
- If two serums both improve texture and firmness, I want to know why I would choose one over the other.
- If I’m already using vitamin C, I may want to know whether I can use this product as well.
- If pigmentation is my main concern, there’s a good chance I also want to know whether this is the product that best addresses it or whether something else in the range makes more sense.
Those are the kinds of distinctions a good skin professional makes naturally in real life.
How do you put that into practice?
Online content can make more of that thinking visible too.
One useful way to assess the information you already provide is to ask:
Is it complete, specific, contextual and well structured?
Complete: Have you answered enough of the obvious questions, rather than stopping at ingredients and benefits?
Specific: Have you explained what genuinely distinguishes this product from another apparently similar one?
Contextual: Have you shown when, why and for whom the product may be useful?
Well structured: Is the information organised clearly enough for someone — and for search systems — to find, understand and make sense of it?
That doesn’t mean every product page needs to answer every possible skincare question. But it does mean looking at product pages, blogs, FAQs and educational content as part of a broader conversation rather than as isolated pieces of information.
Be as useful online as you would be in real life
AI search will keep changing, and the way Google and other platforms surface, summarise and recommend information will almost certainly keep changing with it.
I don’t think skincare brands need to chase every new development.
What still holds true is much simpler.
Be as useful online as you would be if the customer were standing in front of you.
Understand the question she is really asking. Anticipate the next one. Explain what is relevant to her situation. Make the differences between products easier to understand and give her a sensible next step.
That was good skincare communication before AI search, and I suspect it will remain good skincare communication whatever comes next.
That’s how I think about communication at The Beauty Scribe.
If you’d like a fresh, experienced eye on how well your expertise answers your clients’ questions, get in touch.
