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By:

Anjali Joshi

3 July 2026 at 7:55:47 am

Beauty and the Algorithm

Artificial intelligence is transforming skincare, but the industry’s most valuable asset remains irreducibly human. The beauty industry has rarely embraced technological change as enthusiastically as it is doing today. Artificial intelligence can now analyse skin with remarkable precision, sophisticated machines can target imperfections once thought difficult to treat, and aesthetic clinics increasingly resemble laboratories as much as salons. Yet amid this technological revolution, an...

Beauty and the Algorithm

Artificial intelligence is transforming skincare, but the industry’s most valuable asset remains irreducibly human. The beauty industry has rarely embraced technological change as enthusiastically as it is doing today. Artificial intelligence can now analyse skin with remarkable precision, sophisticated machines can target imperfections once thought difficult to treat, and aesthetic clinics increasingly resemble laboratories as much as salons. Yet amid this technological revolution, an enduring truth that remains is that beauty is as much a human experience as it is a scientific one. For decades, skincare revolved around conventional treatments, topical products and the trained judgement of experienced aestheticians. Today, that judgement is reinforced by an arsenal of advanced technologies. Treatments such as HydraFacials, laser therapy, radio-frequency procedures, microdermabrasion, High-Intensity Focused Ultrasound (HIFU) and LED light therapy have transformed the possibilities of non-invasive skincare. They cleanse more deeply, improve texture and pigmentation, and deliver increasingly consistent results. Clients now expect faster improvements with greater precision and fewer risks than ever before. Game Changer Artificial intelligence has accelerated this transformation. AI-powered imaging systems can examine the skin in microscopic detail, assessing moisture levels, oil production, pigmentation, wrinkles, enlarged pores, acne, blemishes and even estimating biological skin age. Perhaps AI's greatest contribution lies in personalisation. Skin is profoundly individual; no two people present identical concerns, lifestyles or biological characteristics. The era of standardised treatments is steadily giving way to customised care. By processing vast quantities of diagnostic data, AI can recommend tailored treatment plans, suggest suitable skincare products and even generate detailed aftercare protocols. The result is better outcomes for clients whose treatments are increasingly designed around their specific needs rather than generic categories. Predictive algorithms can flag the early signs of accelerated ageing, sun damage or pigmentation disorders, allowing preventive intervention rather than corrective treatment. Increasingly, AI is extending beyond the treatment room into clinic management itself, streamlining appointment scheduling, maintaining comprehensive client histories, automating follow-up care and even enabling preliminary online consultations that save time for both practitioners and clients. All this raises an obvious question. If machines can analyse, predict and recommend with increasing sophistication, what remains for the beauty professional to do? The answer is almost everything that matters. While technology excels at processing information, it cannot understand vulnerability. A machine may detect dehydration in the skin, but not the exhaustion that caused it. It may identify pigmentation, but not the insecurity that accompanies it. It may recommend a treatment protocol, but it cannot reassure an anxious client, interpret unspoken concerns or understand why someone seeks aesthetic care in the first place. Beauty treatments are seldom pursued solely to improve the complexion. They are also acts of restoration for confidence, wellbeing and self-esteem. Clients often enter a clinic carrying emotional burdens alongside cosmetic concerns. They seek empathy as much as expertise. It is here that the experienced aesthetician remains irreplaceable. Skilled practitioners read people. They adapt treatments to personalities, lifestyles and emotional expectations. They know when to advise patience instead of another procedure, when to temper unrealistic hopes, and when the most valuable service they provide is simply listening. Nor can technology replicate the therapeutic qualities of touch. The slow rhythm of a facial massage, the careful movements of trained hands and the quiet conversation that often accompanies treatment create an atmosphere of trust that no algorithm can manufacture. These moments are not incidental luxuries but are central to why many clients return. The experience itself - the sense of being cared for - often becomes as valuable as the visible improvement in the skin. This is why the future of beauty is unlikely to be a contest between machines and humans. It will instead be a partnership in which each performs the tasks it does best. AI brings precision, speed and data-driven insight. Advanced equipment expands the range of treatments available while improving safety and consistency. Human practitioners contribute judgement, sensitivity, experience and emotional intelligence - qualities that transform a clinical procedure into genuine care. The beauty industry will undoubtedly become even more technologically sophisticated in the years ahead. But its defining ingredient will remain stubbornly analogue. Machines may analyse the skin with astonishing accuracy, and algorithms may refine every treatment plan. Yet confidence cannot be programmed, trust cannot be automated and compassion cannot be digitised. The future of beauty, for all its algorithms, will still depend on the oldest technology of all - the human touch. (The writer is an aesthetician and founder, Midas Touch International Institute, Pune. Views personal.)

Why is Mamata Seeing Ghost of Bangladesh?

Updated: Oct 21, 2024

Why is Mamata Seeing Ghost of Bangladesh?

Mamata is seeing a ghost of Bangladesh behind the massive outrage and waves of protest over rape and murder of the trainee doctor. And the reasons are many.

It’s been over a fortnight. Yet with each passing day the voice of protest is getting louder and stronger. From the streets of Kolkata it’s pouring into roads of hinterland. The cry for justice for a rape victim has consolidated into a wail of demands to set a lot of wrongdoings right. Here in lies the fear and trepidation. Wasn’t the issue that brought the youth of Bangladesh out on the thoroughfares a simple, innocent one of quota reform?

The chief minister of Bengal, known for understanding the pulse of people better than many, was quick to read the signages floating in the political horizon.

The most obvious reason for her to be tensed is that both the regime change in Bangladesh and the mass protest in Bengal, were student-driven to begin with. The two incidents---end of 15 year old Sheikh Hasina government and turbulence in West Bengal, over the heinous crime, falling back to back, the first on August 5th and the latter from August 9th onwards, give natural scope for comparisons. More so, because in both the cases the movement strayed beyond an affected constituency to include aggrieved people at large, cutting across socio-economic demography. If the quota reform protest started by students in Bangladesh became a mass uprising against an autocratic regime, the campaign demanding justice for the rape victim and overall safety and security of women in Mamata Banerjee’s Bengal soon snowballed into a movement of no-confidence against the government. Slogans--”Mamata must resign” also got floated in social media much in line with the call for ouster of Sheikh Hasina. In fact “Resignation of Hasina” became the single point agenda into which all other fringe demands coalesced.

Incidentally, even before people started drawing parallels, that there could be a thread of commonality in the way the upheaval in Bangladesh and Bengal played out, Mamata was quick to point out that the Opposition were trying to pull off a Bangladesh by politicizing the tragic incident: “A coordinated approach has been executed by the BJP and the CPIM with support from the Centre to defame Bengal and exploit the situation....They want to make a Bangladesh here. They are taking cues from student unrest in Bangladesh and are attempting to capture similarly. I have no longing for the chair. I came here to serve people.”

Not only Mamata, her political lieutenants are consistently equating the turmoil in Bengal with the mayhem in Bangladesh. Cabinet minister for North Bengal development Udayan Guha threatened to take stern action against those, who would be trying to exploit the situation by emulating a Bangladesh like movement. “ Even after the hospital was vandalised, the police did not open fire on anyone. The police will not allow a Bangladesh type situation. We will not allow Bengal to turn into Bangladesh, Guha thundered.

Is the government’s fear unfounded?

Apart from the similarities on ground zero, as to how and where the future course of events are heading to, there are ample reasons for Bengal to mull on-- as to what led to a Bangladesh like boiling point. To begin with, it’ll be appropriate to talk of Bangladesh and the prevailing situation, that made the students’ protest become big in magnitude. The students were out on the streets because of a high reservation in public jobs. Unemployment and stagnant job market in private sector coupled with a high rate of inflation drove the educated youth to rebel against the government.

But soon the students found enormous number of sympathisers, who were equally at the receiving end. According to Bangladesh citizens, the last two terms of the Sheikh Hasina government were a mockery of democracy. Even elections would be compromised. As Hasina grew from strength to strength, she politicized institutions. The rank and file of police owed allegiance to the ruling dispensation. Extortion, harrassment and raids by police and people in power became rampant. An atmosphere of fear and repression reigned and people got restless to overthrow the government.

Politicization of institutions has been happening in Mamata government too. Allegations are quite strong that police in Bengal functions at the beck and call of political bosses. The lapses and alleged loopholes on the part of police in handling the rape and murder of the young doctor have yet again revealed a sense of confused or misplaced loyalty.

But above everything else both Hasina and Mamata governments allegedly seem to have twined in accepting corruption as a way of life. In Bangladesh jobs of primary and secondary teachers got sold at premium, Rs 10-12 lakh in the Hasina regime. Even police had to pay up for prized postings and transfers. In Bengal busting of the teacher’s recruitment scam has revealed how unsuccessful and ineligible candidates got government jobs in schools in exchange of bribes.

Similarities are multiple and inescapable. Mamata has good reasons to be apprehensive. It’s not only she, who can see and connect the dots. People, out on the streets, clamoring for justice, can see a providential pattern somewhere in the unfolding of future events in these two places-- Bangladesh and Bengal. True, they share more than 2,217 odd km of border. They share the same umbilical cord, other than language, culture, ethos, icons. Even emotions are the same. So she cannot take any risk.

(The writer is a senior jounalist based in Kolkata. Views personal)

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