09-08-2026IMPACT COUNCIL

What to expect: Beauty tech’s next decade

From virtual try-on to AI agents, the last 10 years were as instructive as what’s to come

[Photo: Getty Images]

The Fast Company Impact Council is an invitation-only membership community of top leaders and experts who pay dues for access to peer learning, thought leadership, and more.

Returning to Paris for the 10th anniversary of VivaTech felt like looking through a time capsule of innovation.

Perfect Corp. has participated in VivaTech throughout its history. During that time, I watched the event grow alongside many of the technologies presented there. Ideas that once attracted crowds because they seemed futuristic are now becoming part of the infrastructure through which people work, communicate, and shop.

This year’s gathering made one shift especially clear to me: The next phase of innovation will be defined by how intelligently different technologies work together.

That lesson is particularly visible in beauty technology.

When virtual try-on first emerged, its ability to place lipstick, eye shadow, or other products on a person’s face in real time felt almost magical. It created an immersive experience and showed consumers something conventional e-commerce could not: how a product might actually look on them.

At that stage, beauty technology was often viewed as a spectacle. It attracted attention and increased engagement, but many companies still considered it an optional enhancement rather than a core part of the shopping journey.

The next stage was utility.

Virtual try-on became more realistic and commercially useful. AI skin analysis helped consumers better understand concerns such as dryness, spots, wrinkles, and........

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