When Elf Beauty was founded more than two decades ago, the idea that consumers could buy beauty products online was a novelty. But in 2026, consumers are happily buying cosmetics on digital platforms, and their online behavior is changing faster than most companies could have anticipated.
Elf, which owns Elf Cosmetics, as well as Rhode’s Naturium brand and Hailey Bieber, is trying to keep up by jumping into e-commerce platforms like TikTok Shop and using artificial intelligence and big language models like ChatGPT, although their use is still controversial among consumers.
“One thing is that about 60% of the discovery happens on LLMs, mainly ChatGPT and Google,” Elf Beauty’s chief digital officer Ekta Chopra told Glossy during Shoptalk Spring. “It’s not [only] about paying. It’s about being there as part of the customer journey, because the whole fork is collapsing. ”
And adapting to new technology isn’t just a customer-focused proposition, Chopra added. Chopra says Elf has created an internal team to make its products visible to LLMs and is using AI to crunch data to help its products produce specific searches that customers enter into platforms like ChatGPT to help them search for products.
“This is not just, ‘Hey, this is what the customer wants. I’m going to create this content.’ It’s a complete change of mindset for our copy teams and our product marketing team,” said Chora. “That’s not trying to solve a short-term problem, but how the workforce will work in the future – that’s what we’re trying to solve.”
But even as consumers and companies adapt to the rise of AI, TikTok’s impact on beauty is clear.
Since the social media platform arrived in the US in 2018, the internet has accelerated beauty trends, introduced a new group of influencers and content creators and, with the launch of the TikTok Shop in 2023, presented a way for consumers to discover and buy beauty in one window. And the big players are paying attention: Sales from brands with at least $30 million in annual revenue have increased by 97% year-over-year on the TikTok Shop by 2025. In March, Ulta Beauty announced that it would enter the platform.
For Elf, staying in the midst of increasing competition on the stage means thinking of yourself as selling more than just mascara and lipstick.
“The world is moving on for us. We don’t call ourselves a beauty brand anymore. We’re entertainment, when you really think about it,” said Chora. “Being on this stage requires you to have entertainment muscles.” When you’re on TikTok, entertainment comes from trending, trending song, things like that. So I would say we have to adapt to the culture, and the culture is moving at the speed of a swipe.”
Not all major beauty players are taking the same approach to embracing new business channels. In the same month that Ulta placed its bets on TikTok Shop, Sephora announced an integration between its app and ChatGPT. Chopra sees Sephora’s move as a reflection of the LVMH-owned retailer’s faith in ChatGPT as a trusted platform for consumers.
“It’s always Ulta-Sephora battles. Ulta went to TikTok, and Sephora went to LLM,” said Chopra. “Sephora truly believes in connecting its 80 million loyal members with ChatGPT for personalization. [with AI] and everything.”
Sephora is not the only company betting on LLMs like ChatGPT. Shopify and Walmart have also announced integrations with the OpenAI communication model in recent months. Chopra said Elf invited Google to its New York offices to help its team learn how to better use AI. But he insists that while Elf is using AI to increase efficiency, it won’t eliminate its reliance on human input.
“There are things that will use AI to innovate.” Hey, here’s one picture. Can you cut it in 50 different ways, to change the background?’ Of course, it’s a practical process,” he said. Even if you train LLMs, it depends on where you, as a brand, draw the line on the value of a person’s output.
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