Author: Full Editorial (Page 1 of 2)

How To Energize The Data Behind AI

November 2, 2022 / Full Editorial

Artificial intelligence (AI) is one of the biggest technology trends of the coming decade. In an increasingly digital world, propagating and collecting data are the default state of modern business and all internet activity. The problem for businesses is no longer the lack of data, but an excess of it. Despite the enormous data available to industrial companies, for most, their AI systems are not delivering the insights that they expected. The solution lies in filtering data so that the right data gets to AI systems. This “smart data” approach will allow AI systems to generate the kind of insights that we have expected.

What is Smart Data?

AI is a key component of the fourth digital revolution. AI unearths insights from Big Data, insights that no human being could possibly unearth. The more data that AI has, the, the more variables it has, the longer its timescales and the greater its granularity, then, the greater the potential insights that it has.

AI can leverage years of data to discover the optimal parameters for industrial processes using controlling variables. These insights can then be used in these industrial systems to get them to work better than they did before.

Despite the promise of AI, many industrial companies are yet to see the benefits of propagating and collecting so much information. According to McKinsey, although 75% of industrial companies have tried some kind of AI system, only 15% have enjoyed any meaningful, scalable impact from AI. McKinsey identifies the lack of operational insight into their usage of AI. This approach can be successful, but usually only within very specific parameters, and often with frequent retraining, lots of inputs, and sometimes, it leads to physical or unrealistic results. Therefore, these AI models cannot really be used in the real world or to get the kinds of meaningful change that its users expect. What you get are teams that become frustrated with the system and lose faith in AI.

Smart data is the solution. In order to leverage big data to get the kind of insights that it is expected to get, data has to have fewer variables governed by feature engineering based on first principles. This re-engineering of the data to produce smart data, added to more appropriate training can lead to superior returns of between 5% and 15%.

Smart data has been defined in a number of ways, but the essential features are that it refers to data that has been prepared and organized where it was collected in order for it to be ready and optimized for data analytics of higher quality, speed and insight.

At a 2018 conference, Donna Ray, then executive director of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Information Sharing and Services Office, said her “teams spend about 80% of their time just searching, ingesting, and getting data ready for analysis”. The smart data approach has helped federal agencies optimize their processes and speed up their operations and make them more intelligent. Wired described smart data as “Smart data means information that actually makes sense”.

How Do You Generate Smart Data?

Get your Energize the Data! t-shirt out and let’s look at five steps to creating smart data.

Define the Data

The first step toward creating smart data is defining the process as you would a full coverage painting & flooring project. What this means is that processes must be broken down into clearly outlined steps for the company’s plant engineers and experts, with physical and chemical changes sketched out. The business’ critical instruments and sensors, limits, maintenance timeframes, measurement units, and their controllability must be identified. In physical systems, there are elements of determinism governed by clear equations. These equations must be noted as well as their variables. Teams must also understand the literature around these equations, in order to add to their own understanding.

Enrich the Data

We’ve all heard the expression, “Bad data in, bad data out”, but the reality is, all data is in some sense bad data. Raw process data always has some deficiencies. So, your task is to improve the quality of the dataset, as opposed to increasing the amount of data available. Nonsteady-state information must be weeded out aggressively.

Reduce the Dimensionality

AI builds models by matching observables to features. In order to get a generalized model, the number of observations must be far in excess of the number of features. Inputs are often combined in order to generate new features. Factoring in the wealth of sensors that the typical plant has, the result is a vast trove of observations. What should be done, however, is to use inputs that describe the physical processes involved, funneled through deterministic equations, to reduce their dimensionality while also creating features that have intelligently combined sensor information.

Apply Machine learning

Industrial processes have deterministic and stochastic components. First-principle based features supply the deterministic components, and machine-learning the stochastic. Features should be evaluated to assess their importance and explanatory power. The most important, ideally, should be expert-engineered features.

Plant improvements should be the focus of models, rather than achieving a maximum of predictive accuracy. High correlations are a feature of all process data. Correlations can therefore be meaningless. What is needed is to isolate causal elements and controllable variables.

Implement and Validate Models

In order to actually enjoy the meaningful impact that is expected, models must be implemented. Results need to be continuously assessessed through the examination of key features to see that they match physical processes. Partial dependence plots must also be reviewed so we learn about causality and controllable elements must be confirmed.

Operations teams must be consulted and made a critical member of the process to better understand what is implementable and what performance expectations make sense. Operators in control rooms need to get model results as they are generated, or teams must conduct on-off testing so that management can determine if it is worth investing capital in full-scale solutions.

Conclusion

AI has enormous promise and certainly, with the wealth of data that is propagated and collected today, it is counterintuitive to suggest that limits or guard-rails need to be placed around that data. Yet, Big Data often fails to yield meaningful AI insights. Smart data can ensure that AI can deliver the meaningful impact that we expect.

How to Implement Data Enrichment

August 5, 2022 / Full Editorial

In this day in age, data has proven its worth time and time again. Most companies are collecting data every day. However, many companies are not exactly sure how to make the most use of the data they are collecting. They also aren’t sure if they are ordering the right data or even enough data. It’s one thing to collect data, and it’s another thing to use that data to make crucial business decisions to further the company. This is why companies are beginning to look into data enrichment and how it can give businesses a competitive advantage. Taking steps to implement data enrichment into your business can turn your data insights into actions and better-informed decisions overall.

Data Enrichment At Its Core

Understanding what data enrichment can do for your company is crucial. Most companies are familiar with CRM platforms containing basic customer and client information. Information like name, email, phone number, and address are common fields in SaaS tools. However, data enrichment takes it one step further. Data enrichment is the process of enhancing data with more information from other sources. When you gain more information on a customer and enrich the data you have, you now can see even more about a customer and make better-informed decisions. The data enrichment process can also give more accurate views of a customer or client, improving customer experience.

Here’s why data enrichment is essential. In most companies, data is collected through different sources and then funneled into a cloud data platform. When the data is in the warehouse, it’s only understandable for data teams and other technical users that understand SQL. Reports can be made for business stakeholders, but reports are only a general perspective of what is actually going on with individual consumers. Without knowing what is going on with individual consumers, data collection is kind of a waste. Your teams, like sales, finance, support, marketing, and product, have no way of accessing this information and using it to make better decisions about users and create a better customer experience. Data enrichment democratizes this key information to everyone instead of just the users who understand SQL. With more customer data available, your teams can make actionable decisions based on all the information at hand instead of just a general report. Now everyone has access to the same information across the company, making uniform decisions that contribute to the company’s goals.

Data Enrichment Types

There are a few different types of data enrichment. These types can help focus on information related to the consumer. These types are:

Behavioral data enrichment: Looks to add behavioral patterns to user profiles.
Demographic data enrichment: studies the customer in depth.
Geographic data enrichment: gathers information surrounding the customer.

With more access to data, a business will want to gain as much information about a consumer as they can. This way a company can decide the ideal behavioral attributes for customers, and make decisions based off of the specific data they collected. To take data enrichment further, there are data subsets that can provide much value to a company:

Product data: information about a customer that comes from them using a product such as sign up date, messages sent, and number of users.
Sales data: information about a customer that comes from the sales process such as first meeting, free trials, and product demos.
Marketing data: information about a customer from their overall journey such as web pages viewed, link clicks, and resources downloaded.
Finance data: information about a customer that comes from the payment process such as contract size, subscription type, and annual recurring revenue.

Implementing Data Enrichment

Now that you understand what data enrichment is and ways to get more data, you can learn how to implement it into your business. There are some data enrichment tools that can help give your teams access to crucial information. Some examples are:

CDPs: users can consolidate all of their customer data into one platform and can be sent to different places. They can easily integrate with other third party APIs and push data into preferred tools.
iPaaS: platforms that easily move data from point A to point B, and can build intuitive workflows for simple use cases.
Reverse ETL: integrates with the data warehouse so users can sync data to their end destination. Users just need to define the data and send it to the necessary columns and fields.

Leverage Your Data

With companies using data enrichment to leverage their data, business teams can all access the same information to make better business decisions. This creates better customer experiences and more informed decisions that line up with the direction a company wants to go. Data enrichment leads to a 360-degree view of a customer that is accessible to your sales, marketing, finance, support, and product teams. With data enrichment, your company goes from accessible data, to actionable data. This can drive outcomes and improve the effectiveness of a company overall.

How To Get A Therapists License In Another State

April 4, 2022 / Full Editorial

Most therapists or licensed professional counselors (LPCs) are only licensed and thus work in just one state. But as telehealth continues to grow more popular thanks to the pandemic, the idea of being licensed in another state, otherwise known as “license by endorsement” becomes more popular. If your client moves from California to Florida, you can still work with him if you obtain a Florida license. Furthermore, those living on the border of a state may want to get the license of the other, nearby state to attract further business.

The good news is that you do not necessarily have to live in another state to obtain that state’s license. By following the right procedures, you can get another license instead of transferring your LPC license and start practicing within other states either physically or online. While every state is somewhat different, here are some of the key factors to consider.

Why?

As noted above, people have different reasons for wanting to get an out-of-state license. Different reasons should have different approaches.

First, keep in mind that it can take months to get a license from another state. Consequently, you should realize that you may not be able to retain a client if they or you move to another state. If you still want such a thing to be done, you should start the licensing process well before the move. There are also costs such as filing fees or continued education which you may have to complete.

It should be noted that getting new licenses has become somewhat easier over the past year, as some states have loosened medical regulations as part of a COVID response. But by knowing why you need an out-of-state license, you can figure out what exact approach you need to take.

Different States, Different Rules

Unfortunately, every state’s “license by endorsement” policy is somewhat different. But there are a few simple commonalities.

First, you will need to fill out an application, which can usually be found in your state’s department of health website (here is the one from my state of Virginia.) The application will require various documents such as your transcripts and license verification. For this reason, even if you do not plan on getting a license soon, you should always keep such documents on hand. You may also try to reach out to past professors or supervisors for written endorsements.

After that, you may have to take specific courses relating to your state, and then finish filling and notarizing the paperwork. Once that is completed, you will wait. Delays may be possible, and you may have to submit additional information. The only thing you can do after applying is be patient.

Getting that out-of-state license is usually more accessible than your first one, but it still can be difficult and is not for everyone. For example, it may be less suitable for those less willing to telework. But it also can represent a major chance to expand your counseling career, and so should be strongly considered.

How To Go Shopping With Babies

March 29, 2022 / Full Editorial

There are so many simple tasks that suddenly become daunting once you become a mom. Take shopping: there are so many ways that putting a baby in a grocery cart can go wrong! So here are some simple tips on how to go shopping with babies.

Put The Baby’s Car Seat in the Shopping Cart

This is a very tempting option, but it does come with significant downsides. Studies show that an average of 24,000 babies a year are involved in some kind of mishap as a result of being in a car seat on a shopping cart.

As inviting as this option is, car seats are not built to fit into shopping carts. Because they are such a poor fit, it makes it highly likely that your baby will be involved in some kind of mishap. Mishaps can be as extreme as a fractured skull, a concussion and even death.

If you have to use a shopping cart, check to see if it has a safe dock feature that allows you to safely dock the car seat on the shopping cart.

Wearable Babies!

A safer way to shop with your baby is to wear your baby. Strap your baby onto you using a baby carrier. It’s a great way to bond with your child, and keep them feeling warm and safe. Moreover, it’s not only safe, it’s convenient.

Use a Baby Shopping Hammock

Many people haven’t tried this before, but it’s a great way to shop with your baby and it’s good for your back too!

Baby shopping hammocks have passed the most stringent safety tests and been certified as complying with the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act (CPSIA) standards.

They are designed so that your baby stays inside the hammock throughout your shopping trip, thanks to the seat harness and baby carrier strap.

The hammock is really light, so you can put it in your diaper bag or purse.

Use a Stroller

Using a Silver Cross Wave stroller is a very safe way to shop with your baby if you are going to the store with your partner or a friend. It’s safe, and it’s comfortable for your baby. It’s also a viable solution for you even if you’re shopping alone with your baby.

There are a number of ways that you can shop with a stroller:

Push the stroller as you pull the cart. You shouldn’t do this if you can’t balance your attention between the stroller and the cart.
Remove the infant seat and place it in the cart. As with the car seat, you will have to make sure that there is a safe dock feature so that this is done safely. You can put your groceries around the baby seat. This is best done if you are not buying a lot of things.
Get a Baby Carrier and Use it with the Stroller. Many parents use a stroller to put their goods in, and then carry their babies while shopping.
Put your groceries under the stroller. Another solution is to place your groceries under your stroller and forego the cart altogether.

The Era Of The Smart Home Draws Near

March 24, 2022 / Full Editorial

Artificial intelligence is eating the world, one industry at a time and it’s eating the housing industry. We are on the verge of a new era of the “smart home”. Home automation brings the home alive. In the smart home, a home’s attributes, such as lighting, entertainment systems, climate and appliances can be monitored and/or controlled. This can also extend to home security, with automation of alarm systems and access control. Home devices that are connected to the internet form part of the Internet of Things (IoT). The possibilities of the smart home are many and as more and more homes become automated, we are getting to a tipping point before mass adoption.

Why Does the Smart Home Matter?

Home automation promises to bring all the key features of your home as well as any gadgets under one seamless central smart home hub (or “gateway”). In a smart home, you will be able to control everything in your home with voice commands, saving you time, making your home more convenient, as well as saving on energy use and costs.

How Are Smart Homes Set Up?

This is a massive evolution in the nature of the home and it’s a future that you can literally help build. The technology behind the smart home is designed to be installable by its users. Firms such as ADT believe that the DIY nature of smart homes will make them more attractive to homeowners. The company’s DIY smart home security system is an example of this. It is an intelligent system for the protection of your household goods, from your Creative Cabinets to pot plants, and it is powered by AI and controlled and installed by the consumer.

At present, most DIY systems do take some tech savvy, but engineers are moving toward DIY solutions, but at present, consumers have to settle for “Do It For Me” or DIFM solutions. This entails having a professional install the system for you, and working to reduce the number of apps, hardware devices and switches that are needed to control the system.

Can I Use Different Smart Home Devices Together?

Interoperability is not an inherent feature of the internet. This is also true of IoT devices. However, a new industry standard, Matter, promises to bring missing interoperability to the smart home industry.

Matter is the product of the Connectivity Standards Alliance (CSA), under whom device makers have promised to use Matter as the industry standard for future products. Consumers shopping for smart home devices will be able to operate all of them within the same gateway, so long as they carry the Matter logo. Matter will become the industry standard in 2023.

The CSA is composed of tech giants such as Google, Amazon, and Apple, so there is some serious backing behind the standard. Experts believe that it will be in wide use by 2024 or 2025.

Matter will ensure that not only are smart home devices connected to the internet, but that their devices can talk to each other and co-exist in a safe and sustainable way.

How Vintage Furniture Is The New Design Trend

November 22, 2021 / Full Editorial

In 2020, people spent more time at home than they had spent in any other period in recent history. Spending so much time at home made people more aware of their household furnishings and more eager to transform them so that they fit their vision of where they wanted to live and work. With remote and hybrid models of work likely to be an important part of our lives for the foreseeable future, people will continue to invest in their households at higher levels than in past years. One area where people have invested heavily is in furniture. According to a new report, in 2020, spending on furniture and appliances rose from $373 billion to $405 billion year-over-year. The shift to working from home and shopping online drove growth in ecommerce, and one of the fastest growing segments in ecommerce was the vintage and consignment market. Vintage furniture became and has remained the most important design trend of our times.

Chairish, the vintage furniture ecommerce platform, enjoyed a 60% growth in sales. 1stDibs, an ecommerce company that sells luxury items such as furniture, earned a 23% increase in its revenue. Kaiyo, a platform for buying and selling used furniture, has experienced triple-digit growth, month-over-month.

An obvious answer is that second-hand furniture is affordable, and in a time of economic distress, people would shift their purchases towards cheaper alternatives to goods that they need. However, collectible and heritage items performed strongly during that period too. For instance, 1stDIbs sold out its stock of Ray and Chalres Eames’ Lounge Chair, the Ultrafragola mirror and Mario Bellini’s Camaleonda Sofa. Users of the Chairish platform have turned a profit on items such as Michel Ducaroy’s Toga sofa. According to its annual report, Kaiyo sold the DDC On the Rocks sofa at a staggering $18,346 price. This really shows the strength of the collectibles and heritage segment.

Experts predict that the vintage and second hand furniture market will be even stronger in the coming years. According to Statista, the furniture resale market will grow 3.5 times faster than traditional retail, by 2025, appreciating by 54% between 2021 and 2025.

An important reason for the growth in the sector is the change in attitudes toward secondhand goods. This change in attitude has come at a time when platforms such as Depop, TheRealReal, and ands, have allowed millenials and Gen Z shoppers to buy used clothes. The change in attitudes extended to furniture. According to Chairish, 31% of millenials and Gen Z shoppers had a greater demand for second hand, vintage or antique furniture over the last year.
ANother factor is that mass-produced goods have started to lose their sheen. People feel increasingly disconnected from modern consumerist society and vintage furniture arouses more nostalgic emotions, and feels less embedded in consumerism. Modern designs often seem to go out of style as quickly as they get into style, whereas vintage furniture has a more enduring appeal. Younger consumers are looking for goods that express their individuality, rather than embed them in mass-consumerism, and this makes vintage furniture, and classic designs such as leather recliners Made in USA, so appealing.

How To Compete In The Leather Upholstery Market

November 18, 2021 / Full Editorial

Demand for leather furniture has been steadily growing for many years. Expects estimate that the market will grow at a rate of 3.9% compounded over the 2020 to 2027 period. More optimistic reports suggest that the industry will grow at a rate of 5.9% compounded over the 2021 to 2028 period, achieving a value of some $626 billion by 2028. Millenials and the emerging cohort of Gen Z buyers, have developed an affinity for leather furniture, and the quality of the product has many things in its favour. Leather is one of the most durable materials out there, and that, coupled with its texture and looks, means that when it comes to conserving value, there is no better product out there on the market. A key driver of growth is that over the forecast period, consumers are expected to enjoy rising disposable income, allowing them to take advantage of the benefits of owning leather furniture. With growth predicted to continue for the next few years, it is no surprise that many entrepreneurs have entered the market to compete for their slice of the market. Increased competition in the market is not the only problem that manufacturers face. We are living in an age of supply chain disruptions, labor shortages, and a consumer that is more price conscious than ever. Competing in this industry is one of the big questions facing upholsters and a question that I will try to answer in this article.

Manufacturers will have to embrace a new way of doing business. A decade ago, venture capitalist Marc Andressedn declared that, “software is eating the world”, and since then, his declaration has proved prophetic, with industry after industry increasingly mediated by software. The leather furniture industry is not outside of this movement. Manufacturers have to realise that they have to embrace the use of digital technology to generate efficiencies, improve the customer experience, unearth insights to improve their product quality, and ultimately, to earn higher economic profits. With 30% of consumers who purchase leather furniture being between 25 and 34 years of age, there is certainly a massive opportunity to capture consumers who will be on the market for decades to come.

Process optimization and automation are two of the most powerful ways that manufacturers can use to improve their profitability. For instance, the Lectra Versalis 4.0-ready digital cutting solutions enables manufacturers to improve their competitiveness through four improvements:

Increased product quality
Higher yield, reducing costs and optimising pricing
Greater productivity at a time of labor shortages and where time-to-market has to be slashed
More efficient processes thanks to data leveraging

Manufacturers need to leverage such solutions, as well as work with innovators who can provide them with adequate support and guidance to deliver the efficiencies that technology promises. The result of an approach that is open to innovation can be seen in products such as the Bradington Young recliner, which is made in the most efficient way possible, while delivering value to the customer.

Why Dentistry Lacks In Quality Management

November 16, 2021 / Full Editorial

Most people do not realise this, but your oral health is a window to your overall health.According to the Institute of Medicine of the national Academies, which in 2011 published the definitive report on the subject, a close oral exam can detect signs of health problems such as systemic diseases, nutritional deficiencies, microbial infections, injuries, immune disorders and even some cancers. Periodontal disease is associated with respiratory disease, pregnancy outcomes, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and coronary heart disease. The link between the two is why a person’s oral health care will be increasingly integrated into their overall health care. As this happens, dentistry will have to embrace standardized quality and outcome measures, areas which the industry has been relatively lacking compared to the rest of the economy. The reasons wny dentistry has been lacking are varied and the subject of this article.

Dentists Don’t Capture a Lot of Information

At present, dentists generally operate according to a fee-for-service structure in which relatively little data is collected about patient outcomes. This means that the typical dentist does not have enough data to be able to make the necessary insightful inferences to improve quality outcomes. Microsoft founder, Bill Gates, has spoken about the importance of measurement to enhanced performance. Measuring stuff allows us to see if the changes we make actually work. Measurement provides the necessary feedback to enable fertile innovation. Without measurement, innovation is doomed to be erratic and rare. It’s for this reason that the fee-for-service model proves to be an impediment. Dentists simply are not measuring enough stuff and so, quality outcomes are reduced and standards of care are not as high as they could be. In order for the coming integration with overall healthcare to work, dentists will have to adopt more evidence-based methods, methods teeming in the kind of measurements that dentists don’t as-yet typically collect.

Dentists do not have broadly accepted definitions and ways of quantifying quality. The first reason for this is that diagnostic codes are not widely used. So, we do not have a sense of the rationale behind why dentists make the decision they make and arrive at the diagnosis they do. So, it is impossible to know, measure and understand if treatments are truly effective.

Secondly, dentists are trained on the technical aspects of their job. Yet, there is a difference between being good at the mechanical side of the job and making the right decisions for the long-term care of the patient. Yet, dentists do not evaluate long-term effects of their care on their patients.

Reimbursement is another issue. Incentives are a powerful force in shaping human behaviour. Quality metrics were institutionalised by the federal government as part of the establishment of Medicare and Medicaid in 1965. Dentistry did not go through a similar process and so reimbursement is not tied to quality metrics. Your dentist is usually well trained and very good at their job. But typically dental practices are small affairs, they have not undergone the scaling and consolidation that other industries have. As dental practices consolidate, they are increasingly embracing quality metrics to drive better patient outcomes.

A Massive Shortage of Home Care Workers Threatens the industry

August 19, 2021 / Full Editorial

As more and more older adults report a desire to spend their twilight years at home, there has been a boom in home-based care. The trouble is, the home care industry has been plagued by staffing shortages for many years. This makes it difficult for the families of older adults and the older adults themselves, to give older adults what they sorely desire. Often, family members have to become makeshift caregivers, forced to get time off from work, or sometimes even work part-time, use adult day care facilities, or retire early, just so they can give older adults the home care that they need. Getting home care is even harder today, because the risks of having hired help or volunteers in the house often outweigh the benefits. This puts additional pressure on family members to take care of older adults. It’s this crisis that is the subject of a fascinating piece in the New York Times.

As the New York Times shows, it can be hard to find help, either through word-of-mouth, local agencies or other means. Often, local agencies will charge fees only to tell you that they don’t have any home caregivers for you. Eventually, some families are forced to place their older adults in facilities, often at incredibly steep rates. The economic consequences of the staffing shortages in home care are massive.

The homecare industry is made up of a hodgepodge of nonprofit programs, publicly funded care, and for-profit businesses and chains, all of whom operate under federal and state regulations. There is also a gray market that caters to clients who want to avoid regulation and so hire privately.

Vicki Hoaqk, the Home Care Association of America’s executive director, says this is the most frustrating period in her 20-year career in the industry. It has never been so hard to find workers. The association is made up of 4,000 agencies and 500,000 people and yet, even then there is a struggle to help people get the workers they need.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the direct day care workforce shrunk by 342,000 workers in the last year. This includes nursing homes, as well as other home care and residential care staff. This reverses a long-held pattern in which employment rose in each category every year. The reason for the contraction in the labor force is that many workers were laid off, or workers resigned because of Covid-19 related fears or health problems, child care issues, and other issues.

Thankfully, employment in the home care industry rebounded toward the end of last year and is now just 3% off from its pre-pandemic levels. However, this rebound occurs at a time when there has been an explosion in demand for home care workers. Other healthcare categories, such as nursing home occupancy and assisted living, are in decline, whereas home care is on the rise. At present, there are over 800,000 older adults and disabled people, all eligible for Medicaid, and all on state waiting lists to receive home care. Those clients who are paying with private schemes or their own funds are being turned away by agencies. With the nightmare of Covid-19 receding, many people have taken the lesson that congregate care settings are less healthy and safe than home care. Resolving this crisis is one of the great challenges the country faces moving forward.

Beauty Tech Is Revolutionising the Cosmetics Industry

July 7, 2021 / Full Editorial

When people think of technology, they seldom associate it with cosmetics. Though the cosmetics industry can represent the art of the future and the possibilities of tomorrow, its use of science, technology, and research and development is often hidden from the public view. As technology has evolved, so too has cosmetics. The cosmetics industry has embraced the new wave of technology that is sweeping the world. “Beauty tech” is becoming an increasingly important part of how the cosmetics industry conducts research and development, delivers products to its customers, and tries to enrich the customer experience. As Know Techie reports, new technologies are set to revolutionize cosmetics.

One of the most important developments in recent years has been the adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) and augmented reality (AR). These technologies assumed an even greater importance during the pandemic. As shoppers were forced to stay at home, cosmetics businesses had to adapt to deliver their products to their customers and find ways to recreate the magic of the in-store experience at a time when shoppers could not go to stores. AI and AR came to the rescue. AI uses data to find patterns and draw insights from those patterns and thereafter, perform some task. So, for instance, when you browse through a cosmetics firm’s website, it can recommend products based on your search and browsing history, purchases you have made and other data. AR, on the other hand, overlays actual reality with digital information. So, for instance, while shopping for lipstick, an AR program can take an image of you and apply lipstick on that image so you can see what you would look like if you wore that lipstick. Sephora’s 3-D augmented reality mirror allows customers to try Sephora’s makeup products in such a way, avoiding the need for actual physical contact with the product. A clear advantage of AR is that not only can brands deliver the in-store experience of trying products out, AR is much more sanitary at a time when the pandemic has made us so aware of the dangers of physical contact. AR is also much more cost-effective than maintaining an actual store. Customers can try products from anywhere on the planet using the brand’s app, and order what they like, without ever having to go to a physical store.

When you talk about skincare, most people think of moisturisers, cleansers and things like that. Brands will often promote these products as important elements of skincare, which they are. However, these products are not the be-all and end-all of skincare. Technologies and apps are becoming a very important part of skincare routines. These technologies can be used to analyse your skin and monitor UV exposure. SkinScanner is an example of a product that you connect to your smartphone. SkinScanner scans your skin and helps you find irregularities there. FaceGenius and Clinical reality are other examples of skin scanners that are now widely used. These technologies won’t do your eyebrow microblading for you, but they do allow you to intelligently scan your skin and ensure that it is at its healthiest.