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The Future Of Beauty: “AI, AR, And Machine Learning Technologies That Aid The Beauty Shopping Experience”, With Alice Chang of Perfect Corp

I hope to ignite (and continue fueling) the beauty tech revolution for the democratization of beauty. I see advancements in beauty technology and the emerging interactive experiences as a means for beauty lovers to feel empowered to discover, experiment, and play with beauty and express themselves. Advanced AI beauty technology helps shift power into the hands of consumers by giving them the tools necessary to play, test, and navigate their own beauty journey, on their own terms. I hope that the implementation of these creative, interactive, and engaging beauty AI and AR experiences helps fuel a generation of empowered, confident, and inspiring people who express themselves freely and lean into their individuality.

As a part of our series about how technology will be changing the beauty industry over the next five years I had the pleasure of interviewing Alice Chang, CEO and Founder of Perfect Corp.

Alice H. Chang is the founder and CEO of Perfect Corp., the leading beauty tech solutions provider and developer of the award-winning YouCam suite of apps. She is one of the first visionaries at the intersection of technology and beauty. Perfect Corp.’s innovative technology merges advanced artificial intelligence (AI), augmented reality (AR), and machine learning technologies with the growing demand for an enhanced, personalized beauty shopping experience.

Chang’s vision came to life through the creation of Perfect Corp. and a suite of AI and AR beauty apps that includes the award-winning YouCam Makeup and YouCam Perfect. Leveraging her highly successful experience in technology, she’s been able to upend and entirely recreate the consumer, retailer, and brand shopping journey both in stores, online, and on mobile, introducing a true omnichannel consumer experience. With over 800 million downloads of the consumer YouCam apps, and over 250 brand partners implementing custom enterprise solutions, the impact of Perfect Corp.’s beauty technology is apparent, drawing on Chang’s vision to empower the consumer through interactive discovery and experimentation.

From 1997 to 2015, Chang was the CEO of CyberLink Corp. where her leadership propelled the company from a small startup to an award-winning global brand. Under her leadership, CyberLink expanded rapidly, with its software (including the popular PowerDVD and PowerDirector) now pre-installed across top PC brands around the world. Chang currently resides in Taipei, Taiwan and holds an MBA from UCLA.

Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dive in, our readers would love to learn a bit more about you. Can you tell us a story about what brought you to this specific career path?

Before technology, I was working in the financial sector in the banking industry. This was during the early 90’s, when the internet was introduced into our daily lives and I saw a myriad of possibilities in the online realm. Sparked by curiosity and opportunity, I decided to jump in and started my career in the IT industry, focusing on online security at an antivirus company called TrendMicro. Later in 1996, as I noticed the PC getting more and more powerful, and acquiring new capabilities like video and audio playing, I recognized the opportunity for these devices to be used as a source of entertainment, and not just a work tool. It was on this vision that I founded Cyberlink later that year, to help advance the technology for the enjoyment of people. Nearly two decades later, I recognized the practical application of AR and facial recognition technologies in the beauty space. It was in August 2014 that Perfect Corp. was born with the focus of re-imaging the consumer beauty experience through advanced technology that help individuals discover, try, share, and shop for beauty.

Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began your career?

It was 2016, the second year of Perfect Corp. We had already created an amazing product — YouCam Makeup. The interactive consumer app helps beauty lovers discover, try-on, and shop tons of different products and styles through hyper-realistic virtual effects powered by Augmented Reality (AR) technology. I loved the YouCam Makeup app so much (and still do!) that I used it every morning before heading to the office (mostly testing the latest releases the engineering team had developed the previous day/night). Every time I opened the app to experiment with the beauty filters, my mood was instantly elevated. I started to observe my team and attendees at event who were playing with the technology and observed the same response — they instantly stood taller, held their head a bit higher, and smiled bigger than ever. It was an instant confidence boost, and not just because of the instant professional makeover. There was something about the convenience and fun of trying looks and styles they would have never thought to experiment with in real life, that fueled this sense of self discovery and expression. Playing in YouCam Makeup was instantly empowering and I wanted to continue to build on this experience, connecting the brands, products, and styles from the physical beauty world, with a complimentary experience within the digital beauty universe I had created. I began to think, what will it take for users to find the right products and shades and learn how to apply them in real life? That was the single idea that made me turn the company’s strategy around and begin partnering with top beauty brands to create a full circle experience.

Are you able to identify a “tipping point” in your career when you started to see success? Did you start doing anything differently? Are there takeaways or lessons that others can learn from ?

I am not afraid to try new things and new ways of doing things. My colleague always says: “Alice is a dreamer, and she has so many wild dreams.” I think as an entrepreneur, this is the spirit I need to carry on and pass to the team. I always said that the paradigm shift is an opportunity for everyone to jump on. Don’t just live in your old comfortable paradigm, because the industry changes very fast, especially in technology. My lesson is that only when we are brave enough to try new things, to do something that nobody else has done before, then we will have a chance of real success and perhaps even have more fun along the way too.

None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person to whom you are grateful who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?

There are so many people that helped me in my career, but I am truly grateful for my team. Our engineering team is fantastic and they help me bring my dreams to life. Every time I have one of those “Alice wish” moments, no matter how hard it is, my engineering team always delivers. All our developers work very hard and they continue to amaze me with unthinkable innovation, so we can prove to the world that we can do it. Of course, no success would be achieved without the hard work and contribution from other departments. Our RD, design, marketing, and business development teams all work tirelessly toward a common goal. Great teamwork truly makes anything possible.

After we developed the first YouCam app, (a selfie editing app, YouCam Perfect), I challenged my team to push beyond selfie-editing to develop an automatic magic mirror that would help beauty lovers instantaneously experience makeup effects with true-to-life details and precision. This has never been done before on a smartphone. The team worked for 4 months, and in 2014 we released the world’s first true-to-life virtual AR makeup app, YouCam Makeup, which had accumulated over 800 million downloads to date.

Ok super. Let’s now shift to the main part of our discussion. The beauty industry today has access to technology that was inconceivable only a short time ago. Can you tell us about the “cutting edge” (pardon the pun) technologies that you are working with or introducing? How do you think that will help people?

At Perfect Corp., we are constantly innovating and finding unique ways to utilize advanced AI, AR, and machine learning technologies to improve the beauty shopping experience for consumers, brands, retailers, and content creators. Advancements in AI and AR have helped to create virtual beauty experiences that rival physical ones, unlocking a new level of discovery, experimentation, and personalization that was not possible in the past. Color cosmetics were the first products adopted for virtual try-on given the nature of the more dramatic try on effects. With developments in AI, digital experiences involving hair color try on and skincare diagnostics are also now possible. Furthermore, advanced AI and machine learning are building upon a very personalized experience that helps recommend the best products and styles based on individual preference.

Keeping “Black Mirror” and the “Law of Unintended Consequences” in mind, can you see any potential drawbacks about this technology that people should think more deeply about?

I think the megatrend of technological impact on each industry is inevitable, no matter if it is FinTech, HealthTech, SportTech or BeautyTech. Technology brings a lot of value to consumers in each area, and I think the benefits it brings are larger than its drawbacks.

Can you share 3 things that most excite you about the “beauty-tech” industry?

  1. It’s ability to spark discovery, empowering beauty lovers to experiment and have fun with beauty.
  2. The ease of personalization possible with advanced AI for personal recommendations
  3. The opportunity it presents for endless innovation and continued advancements.

Can you share 3 things that most concern you about the industry? If you had the ability to implement 3 ways to reform or improve the industry, what would you suggest?

  1. Navigating a sea of options. With new brands and products entering the beauty universe daily, it creates confusion and angst among beauty lovers trying to navigate the extensive selections.
  2. Beauty AI solutions cut through the clutter to deliver instant, personalized products and styles that match the individual consumer’s needs.
  3. Hygiene concerns. With the rapid spread of the novel CORVID-19 virus and growing global health concerns, product sampling will continue evolve to no-touch/virtual testing.
  4. Introducing hyper-realistic virtual beauty try-on experiences that rival physical ones will continue to become the norm for product testing. As technology becomes more and more advanced, shoppers become increasingly more confident basing their purchase decisions on digital try-ons.
  5. Disconnected consumer shopping experience. Brands are continuing to struggle with the many consumer touchpoints that exist today — online, in-store, social media, etc. There is growing demand for brands to create a fully integrated omnichannel experience.
  6. To improve, brands need to take the leap to connect every aspect of their experience and rethink the strategy for each channel individually. User behavior greatly varies based on the channel and brands need to understand and best serve the consumer on that specific outlet, while still maintaining a consistency that rings true to the brand.

You are a beauty expert. Can you share 5 ideas that anyone can use “to feel beautiful”? (Please share a story or example for each.)

  • 1. Remind yourself of it every.single.day. It may sound silly, but when you wake up in the morning while you load up your toothbrush, look at yourself in the mirror and remind yourself, “I am beautiful”
  • 2. Write yourself a love note. If the whole talking to yourself in the mirror thing feels awkward, try writing a love note to yourself and watch it manifest in a sea of self-love.
  • 3. Surround yourself with beauty. Ensure that the people and things around you, that fill your space, make you smile and remind you daily that your life is beautiful.
  • 4. Don’t take your beauty regimen so seriously. Beauty is meant to be fun and freeing. A chance to express yourself and discover newness that makes you smile.
  • 5. Turn your beauty routine into daily pampering. Instead of mindlessly washing your face, applying your mascara, or brushing your hair, be present and enjoy those few moments of pampering as a treat to yourself. Take a moment to soak up and appreciate this daily self-love ritual that we far too often rush through on autopilot.

You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. 🙂

I hope to ignite (and continue fueling) the beauty tech revolution for the democratization of beauty. I see advancements in beauty technology and the emerging interactive experiences as a means for beauty lovers to feel empowered to discover, experiment, and play with beauty and express themselves. Advanced AI beauty technology helps shift power into the hands of consumers by giving them the tools necessary to play, test, and navigate their own beauty journey, on their own terms. I hope that the implementation of these creative, interactive, and engaging beauty AI and AR experiences helps fuel a generation of empowered, confident, and inspiring people who express themselves freely and lean into their individuality.

Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?

Life is full of ups and downs and unexpected challenges. Sometimes we even lose sight of what really matters, but I believe it’s very important to never regret a day in your life. Live life to the fullest and always focus on the positive. And if we can make a difference along the way, even better!

How can our readers follow you online?

https://www.linkedin.com/in/alicehchang/

Follow along in the YouCam journey at @YouCamApps and @YouCamPerfect.Official

Thank you so much for joining us. This was very inspirational.


The Future Of Beauty: “AI, AR, And Machine Learning Technologies That Aid The Beauty Shopping… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.