Boots expected to launch an AI personal shopper which will help beauty lovers make choices about what to buy

Beauty giant Boots is expected to launch an AI personal shopper which will help customers make choices about what products to buy.

The high street retailer, which opened its first Beauy Boots concept store at Battersea Power Station earlier this month, is thought to be testing an artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot that would be able to offer recommendations to shoppers. This means that customers could ask for help when deciding what make-up, skincare and beauty gifts they want to buy. Testing of the service is thought to be at an early stage but Boots' digital team is expected to continue their work after Christmas.

Boots, which has a history of over 170 years, has a long-standing partnership with Microsoft, the commercial distributor of ChatGPT, and uses the AI tool in other parts of its business. The retailer has already signalled its intentions to embrace AI technology. Earlier in the year, Boots signed a deal with Ocula Technologies, which offers an AI-based tool aimed at avoiding abandoned shopping trolleys online, though it is not clear if this is related to the potential AI personal shopper plans.

The dedicated beauty store at Battersea Power Station, which features more than 250 curated brands and new industry-leading skin care services, was opened as part of Boots’ ongoing efforts to revamp the beauty side of its business. The company has previously said that it would continue to invest in beauty halls and advisors across its portfolio, and some believe that the introduction of a AI personal shopper could be part of this.

If implemented, it would make the health and beauty retailer the first mainstream brand to adopt AI software which is trained to provide a detailed response when asked a question from a customer. Boots has yet to comment on these reports.

The news comes as a new report has found that UK retailers are among the global leaders when it comes to plans to add artificial intelligence to their operations over the next year. The study, from SLI Systems, shows UK stores are more pro-active on the AI front than retailers in many other countries. Worldwide, 54% of e-commerce professionals report that their company uses or plans to add AI in the future and 20% are expecting to add AI within 12 months, according to the Fashion Network.