Hair & beauty businesses could save over £35,000 per year with artificial intelligence

A report commissioned by Yell has revealed how the hair and beauty industry could benefit from adopting artificial intelligence (AI), with financial rewards including saving over £35,000 annually.

According to the report, technology such as customer service chatbots and automated booking systems and financial reporting could be advantageous for the sector.

Surveys of 1,008 UK business leaders and 2,003 UK consumers were taken to find the data, which revealed that the hair and beauty industry ranks as the top fifth sector that stands to save the most money by utilising AI – a total of £2,969.16  monthly and £35,629.88 annually. The report attributes this to the time-saving benefits of AI, which would save businesses an average of 40 hours per week or 2,075 hours per year.

Sectors that ranked above the hair and beauty industry for being able to save the most money with AI include the automotive, commercial services, architecture/engineering/building, and finance sectors.

The report finds that 49% of business owners in the hair and beauty sector feel ‘confident’ to use AI in their business, placing the sector among the top five for this in the UK.

Although data shows that AI is already used in some form in 83% of UK businesses, 67% of business leaders surveyed are concerned that AI advancements will result in job losses, and consumers expressed concerns about trust, such as data falling into the wrong hands. However one in 10 of the consumers surveyed revealed they would actually like more AI-driven personalisation.

Claire Miles, chief executive officer of Yell, comments: “It seems we are on the verge of a revolution with AI, with the time-saving and money-making capabilities of the technology being an absolute game-changer. The responsibility is now on business leaders of the world to ensure that any form of artificial intelligence is implemented properly, with the right security measures to alleviate trust and privacy concerns, as well as using it effectively and sensitively to create more specialised jobs.’’ 

To read the full report, click here.