The global beauty market entered 2025 with confidence. After two years of explosive post-pandemic recovery, many brands expected the momentum to continue. But the data tells another story.
According to McKinsey’s State of Beauty 2025 report, the industry’s growth rate has slowed to 4.2%, nearly half of what it was in 2023. Consumer demand hasn’t disappeared; it has evolved. The same report shows that over 70% of shoppers are now influenced by online education, reviews, and social proof rather than pure advertising.
This shift isn’t about trend fatigue. It’s about trust.
As AI becomes the first touchpoint between consumers and brands, especially through tools like ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google AI Overviews, the rules of visibility are changing. AI no longer rewards who shouts the loudest. It rewards who shows up as most credible.
At HatchEcom, we’ve seen this same pattern across multiple industries, from beauty to wellness to apparel. Growth doesn’t disappear; it redistributes toward the brands that communicate clearly and prove credibility in every channel. AI has simply accelerated that divide.
Let’s unpack what this means for beauty brands navigating the new reality of AI transparency.
Why AI Ignores Surface-Level Claims
In the traditional beauty ecosystem, storytelling used to be everything. Words like “clean,” “advanced,” or “proprietary” carried weight. Now, AI models trained on billions of data points are learning to see through them.
When a user asks ChatGPT, “What are the best skincare brands for sensitive skin?” The model doesn’t pull from ad copy. It synthesizes information from reviews, expert citations, and credible publishers. If your brand story is full of buzzwords but lacks factual anchors (ingredients, studies, certifications) AI won’t prioritize you.
That’s because AI visibility and ranking are now heavily influenced by E-E-A-T:
This framework, originally built for Google Search, is becoming a foundation for how generative models evaluate brand reliability.
In short: AI doesn’t buy into promises. It verifies patterns of trust.
So when a brand claims “clinically proven,” the models look for public studies or dermatologist quotes to confirm it. When a product says “eco-friendly,” AI searches for certifications or third-party reviews. And when it finds none, the claim is discounted.
For beauty brands, this means one thing: the age of glossy storytelling without substance is over.
Transparency has been trending in beauty for years, but 2025 made it non-negotiable. AI’s growing role as a product discovery layer means visibility now depends on how transparent your digital ecosystem is.
According to McKinsey’s report, brands that share verifiable ingredient sourcing or sustainability data have 2.3x higher engagement across digital touchpoints than those that do not. That advantage is amplified by AI, which prefers structured, factual content over emotional or subjective tone.
When AI agents analyze both, the second is interpreted as a stronger, more trustworthy source. Not only does this influence AI visibility, but it also mirrors how human audiences perceive authenticity.
In short, AI transparency and consumer trust are now intertwined. You can’t earn one without building the other.
For leading beauty brands, credibility is no longer a static trait, it’s a system. It’s built across every digital touchpoint: your website, product descriptions, reviews, and even internal data structures.
How brands are winning AI visibility through credibility:
At HatchEcom, we work with brands navigating this exact challenge, turning credibility into structure. Whether through product data, PDP clarity, or AI visibility audits, we help beauty brands translate their values into language that both humans and algorithms can trust.
Authenticity isn’t abstract anymore. It’s measurable.
Recent data from SPATE’s August 2025 Skincare Trends report shows just how quickly consumer discovery is shifting. While Google still dominates for transactional searches, ChatGPT leads in concern-driven queries (eczema, acne scars, dark spots).
Consumers see AI as a personal advisor, not a search engine. They’re not browsing; they’re asking.
For beauty brands, this shift marks a new kind of visibility. If your brand’s content lacks that clarity, if it sounds like marketing copy rather than expert guidance, it’s unlikely to be cited by AI at all.
According to SPATE, monitoring AI searches is becoming as vital as keyword research once was. Visibility now means being referenced where decisions are made.
It’s tempting to believe that louder messaging drives attention. But in the AI-driven beauty landscape, hype is now a liability.
Let’s break down why:
This is the transparency shift. The beauty industry once sold aspiration. Now, it sells evidence.
AI transparency doesn’t mean stripping away creativity. It means grounding it in credibility. Here’s how to build a strategy that works for both humans and machines.
In short, transparency isn’t a trend. It’s the foundation of future visibility.
Beauty used to thrive on aspiration. Now, it thrives on accountability.
The slowdown isn’t a crisis, it’s a correction. Consumers haven’t stopped believing in beauty. They’ve stopped believing marketing detached from reality.
AI didn’t create this shift. It accelerated it.
At HatchEcom, we believe the next generation of beauty brands will win not by chasing virality, but by earning verifiability. Creativity still matters. Emotion still moves. But truth, structure, and transparency are what AI (and people) trust most.
Because in 2025, AI sees through the hype, and so do your customers.