Is AI Replacing Google for Beauty Shoppers?

37% of beauty and cosmetics consumers are already using AI platforms — ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, and others — to search for products. 27% of UK shoppers are already making purchases via AI agents. And 80% abandon traditional Google searches in this sector because they simply can't find the specific, personalised answers they need. The $450 billion beauty industry is being reshaped by AI search faster than most brands have realised — and the window to get ahead of it is closing. Charlie Marchant (CEO of Exposure Ninja) and Dale Davies (Head of Marketing at Exposure Ninja) dig into the findings from Exposure Ninja's new Beauty AI Search Report and what it means for any brand competing for visibility and purchases right now: 💄 Why 37% of beauty consumers are already searching in AI — and why that number is likely to keep rising rapidly 💄 How personalisation is driving AI adoption in this sector, from skin photo uploads in ChatGPT to quiz-based regimen builders, and what that means for how you structure your content💄 The budget question every beauty marketing leader is asking: do you invest in owned tools like regimen builders, or in getting your brand into AI recommendations — and how to decide 💄 Why AI Overviews now appear on 36% of beauty queries, what that means for organic traffic, and how appearing in them is a different challenge to ranking in ChatGPT or Gemini 💄 How the "lipstick effect" means beauty spending is proving recession-resilient — with UK shoppers spending £324 on average in 2025, up from £291 in 2024 — and why that makes AI search optimisation a priority even in uncertain economic conditions 💄 Why 29% of shoppers go into physical stores just to read product descriptions they couldn't find online, and the easy win most brands are missing 💄 The long-term future: agentic AI shoppers projected to account for 10–20% of US e-commerce purchases by 2030, and what that means for how beauty brands need to be structured today 💄 Charlie's practical recommendations for getting started: how to track AI traffic in Google Analytics, which product categories to prioritise, and why third-party PR is the biggest lever most brands aren't pulling "If you're not in the recommendations, you're not pushing any traffic through from those sites. You're not getting referral traffic from ChatGPT or Gemini, and you're not covering that part of the top of the funnel — of those 37%, that's for now." Whether you're an established beauty brand navigating the shift away from traditional search, or a challenger brand trying to punch above your weight in AI recommendations, this episode gives you a clear picture of where the category is heading and the actions to take before your competitors catch up. Download the full Beauty AI Search Report for the complete data and sector-specific recommendations: Follow Charlie Marchant on LinkedIn for the latest in AI Search Optimisation: Request a free marketing review: Try Semrush for FREE: Get the show notes: Listen to these episodes next: I Bought a £7M Company to Test My Marketing Playbook If My SEO Traffic Dropped, Here’s Exactly What I’d Do How To Dominate AI Search Results in 2026

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Is AI Replacing Google for Beauty Shoppers? is an episode from Digital Marketing Podcast with Tim Cameron-Kitchen by Tim Cameron-Kitchen.

This episode is 00:31:00 long.

This episode was published on Apr 17, 2026.

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