Case study – INNOVATION – Boots
Navigating AI in beauty for Boots
No.7 Beauty Company was set to explore AI-driven innovation in beauty. The opportunity was significant. So was the risk. In an industry built on personal expression and intimate relationships between consumers and their routines, getting AI wrong could cost more than a product launch.
The challenge: How do you innovate without alienating?
Beauty consumers have a deeply personal relationship with how they look and how they get there. Boots No.7 needed to understand exactly where AI would feel like a welcome tool and where it would feel like an unwanted intrusion, before committing to a direction.
What we did: We brought make-up lovers together and let them lead
We ran an online community with passionate make-up enthusiasts, exploring their beauty routines and their relationship with technology. Follow-up sprint innovation sessions went further, asking consumers to generate their own AI product concepts. Rather than reacting to ideas, they created them, revealing far more about their real desires, fears and expectations than a conventional survey.
What we found: Consumers don’t fear AI. They fear losing authenticity
What came to light was a clear emotional boundary between a trusted tool and a digital intrusion. Consumers wanted realness, consistency and easy navigability, but not at the cost of autonomy.
The impact: A strategic roadmap grounded in real human insight
No.7 came away with more than research findings. We gave them a clear roadmap for AI product development that distinguished between innovations that would resonate and those that could potentially alienate customers, grounded in their consumers’ actual desires and boundaries.
The work gave Boots and No.7 the confidence to move forward with AI innovation in a way that honoured the intimacy that makes beauty, beauty.
“I absolutely loved working with Magenta. Everything ran so smoothly and to time, and we were kept updated at every stage of the project.”
Global Insights Manager, No.7 Beauty Company
If you are exploring how AI can work for your brand without compromising what makes it human, let’s talk.