Ep 300 – Meet ChatGPT, the New Esthetician in Town

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0:01:00.4 Speaker 2: Hello and welcome to ASCP Esty Talk. I'm your co-host Maggie Stasi and ASCP's program director.

0:01:05.8 Speaker 3: And I'm Ella Cressman, licensed aesthetician, ingredient junkie and content contributor for Associated Skincare Professionals.

0:01:12.8 S2: So Ella, across my thread on social LinkedIn, there was this article people were commenting on this 37-year-old woman went to chatGPT and prompted chatGPT to be a professional dermatologist/aesthetician and create a skincare routine for her. And I was really intrigued by this. It went viral and I went to Google and actually this is something that there's like a million stories about this, but maybe this girl had a lot of followers and that's why it blew up. But a lot of people have been doing this and so I'm all into the gimmicks. I tried it out.

0:01:57.1 S3: Nice. What happened?

0:02:00.1 S2: Well, I wanna share with you first her prompt to chat because I basically followed her thing. So she says, hi chatGPT, you are to act like a professional and extremely skilled and experienced dermatologist. You'll help me give a skincare routine schedule that will help me get much more beautiful skin. And then she goes on to say that these are her skin conditions, this is how old she is, this is what her skin looks like, so on and so forth. So I was like, wow, that's amazing. And she had before and after photos, her skin looked beautiful. I'm like, I am in man, I am trying this out. Like chat is amazing. Now granted, this could be a problem for the skincare industry, but I wanna know like what's it gonna recommend for me? Five minutes later I was like, wow, chatGPT does not know anything.

0:02:55.8 S3: Okay, what happened?

0:02:57.1 S2: I had to do a little reality check here. So I followed the same format, entered it in, said that I want you to act not just as a dermatologist, but also your extremely skilled aesthetician. I want you to use professional skincare products. These are all my problems. Now, it gave me like very extensive routine, broken up by morning routine, night routine. Then also some optional steps that I could do. It also listed multiple products that I could use. And I was immediately turned off when it said I needed to use toner.

0:03:32.7 S3: Uhuh. No, no. Not today. No. But what was it about...

0:03:36.5 S2: Not today. I'm an anti toner user as part of the problem. But.

0:03:41.4 S3: The anti toner.

0:03:42.2 S2: Anti toner.

0:03:42.2 S3: That's what did it. That was invalid after that point.

0:03:45.0 S2: That pushed me over the edge. I will say that I did go back and with my aesthetician hat on, gave it more prompts saying, are you familiar with these professional product lines? And I do use retinol regularly and glycolic regularly. And what do you think about that? And we actually had like a very nice conversation chat and I and in the end I got a very nice regimen. But a consumer who doesn't have this background knowledge would be told, use toner and your Neutrogena cleanser and you're gonna look like a baby's bottom.

0:04:19.8 S3: I think that's such an interesting point of view because really what they do is they the chatGPTs for hopefully, but whatever they're pulling from all of these things and it's... Do you remember SEO?

0:04:31.2 S2: Yeah.

0:04:32.4 S3: I'm imagining it's pulling from these places that have high SEO. Well, the high SEO places are these mainstream brands who pay somebody to have a new SEO for their Google ranking and all these other things. So the information I feel can be a little askew with these AI type formats. What's interesting is what you did is called prompt coding because you kept going.

0:04:57.7 S2: You know all this stuff Ella.

0:05:00.6 S3: I love AIs 'cause I use it a lot but it's called prompt coding and it's going to be a new section of that part of the industry. But the general public doesn't. They're taking that one answer for gold. And this is something that's happening when you're typing in, How does this one ingredient work? So this is my problem with a lot of these AI search engines is it's pulling from the most popular people getting the most popular opinions. Imagine if it's like asking the most popular influencer their opinion on what you should do.

0:05:28.9 S2: Yeah. Oh, it's going to be very biased.

0:05:31.9 S3: Yes. Absolutely.

0:05:32.8 S2: I did even type into chat. We're on a first name basis now. I did ask chat. Do you know what you're talking about? They respond back to everything very positively. Doesn't matter what I put in, they're very positive.

0:05:45.1 S3: That's nice.

0:05:46.7 S2: Yeah. And they said, yes, I know about this. I know about that. Sure. Let me be so helpful. Actually sure. We can adjust your regimen based on this additional information that you're providing.

0:05:58.2 S3: What was the biggest difference between V1 and like this additional information that you guys came?

0:06:06.2 S2: So we went through three different versions of regimens based on the more information I kept prompting and in the end ended up with basically a regimen I already do and...

0:06:18.2 S3: The right one.

0:06:20.3 S2: Yeah. With little sprinkles of some over the counter products.

0:06:23.9 S3: Would you use those over the counter products?

0:06:24.8 S2: I am willing to try it because I can't help but be swayed. I mean clearly chat knows what it's talking about.

0:06:31.9 S3: Yes. They do. Once you get there, eventually.

0:06:35.0 S2: Once you get there.

0:06:35.0 S3: Eventually.

0:06:36.7 S2: Yeah. So like broad level here, let's talk about why people are turning to AI instead of professionals or are they even turning to AI instead of professionals? I think there's a lot to unpick here. First of all, it's available 24/7. And depending on the generation, I think there are some people who are maybe afraid to actually go to that professional, can't pay that professional. And the access to information that they take as gold, like you said, seems easy and affordable and immediate.

0:07:08.4 S3: Yeah. I can see that as being, I mean it's... And it's something we're going to more and more. It started with, you brought it up one time you said, I used to ask Jivs. So you have a long history of these relationships.

0:07:16.9 S2: That's how I got my homework done.

0:07:20.1 S3: Yes. So you used to ask Jivs and then it became a verb to Google it. Just Google it. And so this is a more refined option here, this AI that we have. But we go to it for a lot of things, whether it's random facts or now the last few years, this refined version that we're getting. So like we assume that every single community member of the United States of America is coming to a professional and we know that's not true. There's a large percentage that we're gonna figure it out on our own. And for that there's now websites and such and they have these skin quizzes. So my half full mind is going to that this information and these draws will help refine those skin quizzes because I hate those or I hate what they've been.

0:08:05.8 S2: I love them.

0:08:07.5 S3: Yeah. Okay. And so you basically did the same thing. You prompted your own skin quiz.

0:08:12.3 S2: Yeah. Yes. I love those skin quizzes for the same reason I loved going to chatGPT and saying, tell me what I should use.

0:08:19.0 S3: And did you trust them or did you wanna just know what they had to say?

0:08:21.7 S2: I just wanted to know what they had to say. And what I do is pick and choose based on the results. You know what it's, I'm probably mental here because I get the result either from the quiz or from chatGPT and then say, Hmm, are you right? I don't know if you're right. I think actually I know more.

0:08:39.0 S3: So it's a confidence booster for you. Yeah. Okay. Let me just switch industries then.

0:08:46.8 S2: You know what, that's how I get my wellbeing.

0:08:50.3 S3: My cup of coffee and a skin quiz. Yeah. No you don't. So when you get your hair done and they say you need this conditioner. Do you go Mm?

0:09:00.4 S2: Oh yeah. You better believe it. Actually, I go to a hair person who doesn't try to retell me anything.

0:09:05.6 S3: Okay. Do you use hair products?

0:09:08.3 S2: Yeah.

0:09:09.6 S3: From where?

0:09:10.5 S2: Well, Wherever I can get it for free 'cause I'm in the biz lady.

0:09:14.9 S3: Okay, good. Fair enough. Okay. That's interesting because I'm the same way I go to hair person and they're like, you need this and this. And I'm like, mm. Do I though? So it might just be because we're in the business that we're a little bit more discerning potentially.

0:09:27.9 S2: That's a nice way to put it.

0:09:30.6 S3: But I guess that's my concern with the public is not everybody's like, oh, I need this and I need that. I need two different heat protections. Okay, not to say they're just trusting. But then I ask people to trust me. But I guess the like long and short of it is that we know more than chatGPT. So always Elise, Maggie, and I always put your trust in the pro who's going to, unless you're good at code prompting, perhaps.

0:10:00.7 S2: Just talking about AI, there's a lot that estheticians can incorporate into their practice.

0:10:05.3 S3: I think so too.

0:10:07.1 S2: And I mean if we're talking about trust here, aestheticians can offer those virtual consultations or a quiz if you will, before booking your appointment. Or even just doing a, what is it? Virtual skin analysis.

0:10:22.0 S3: I think those are all great ideas. There's another one, it's not chatGPT, it's called perplexity. And it'll pull peer reviewed studies or it'll show you the source of where they're getting the information from. And another thing to think about for aestheticians is medicine. So if your client comes in during the consultation and has pharmaceuticals or supplements, you can plug that into perplexity and say air their a, D, C and contra of these, which is way more efficient than Google. Or help me design a skincare routine for people with these medications. And it will help you. So there is opportunity, I feel, to use it in a positive way.

0:11:00.8 S2: Yeah. Embrace it. Don't distrust it.

0:11:04.2 S3: All the way. Yeah.

0:11:07.8 S2: Yeah. So initially when I saw this thread, my gut reaction was, wow, AI is replacing the aesthetician or the dermatologist. There are people out there that are going not just to chatGPT, but to Google or even like WebMD to say, I've got X, Y, and Z going on. Or help me create my routine and not going to the professional.

0:11:31.7 S3: Ooh, you said WebMD.

0:11:32.7 S2: Yeah, I did.

0:11:32.9 S3: Okay. It would be like the doctors being afraid that people won't seek medical care because they can go to WebMD. Now. I think it's the opposite. They're going to WebMD and they're like freaking out and needing more. But I digress like, oh my gosh, it's the worst possible scenario. But I would say that I think it's not a threat to us because those people that are gonna go do that are not gonna come to us anyway. And there if they are gonna come, they're not gonna stay. So on the flip side, if that's your concern, like, oh, they're gonna replace me, shake it off, Taylor Swift it, and then just give your best to the people who do wanna come to you.

0:12:07.6 S2: You said it. I love that. That's so true. If they're gonna be using the chatGPT to build their skincare routine and apply the toner in the Neutrogena they're not using an aesthetician anyway.

0:12:18.0 S3: I wanna know what your routine was.

0:12:22.1 S2: Yeah. So let me share with you a little bit about the routine. So the skincare routine that I ultimately ended up with from chatGPT was to start with a cleanser. And I did prompt this a little bit that I wanted hydration and I wanted vitamin C and all the good things that I think a just general consumer would know about anyway. But it recommended using hydrating, non-foaming cleanser, something formulated for combination skin, because that's what I told chat I was dealing with. It told me to focus on ingredients that had glycerin and hyaluronic acid, which I thought was interesting for the cleanser. Then the dreaded toner to balance my pH after I had just cleansed with glycerin and hyaluronic acid. And this is when I wrote chatGPT off.

0:13:10.0 S3: Yeah. Number two done.

0:13:12.8 S2: Done. And it was recommending a toner that was like a rosewater or a witch hazel, which, that's great if that's for you, but I have never felt the need to tone. And I think this is just an added step. If you like that feeling awesome. But I thought, wow, chat, you do not know me.

0:13:30.1 S3: You made me sad.

0:13:31.6 S2: You made me sad. Then next step is a vitamin C serum, all about that. And it's said to find ingredients like ascorbic acid or ascorbyl, glucose side. And again, I said chat.

0:13:44.5 S3: No.

0:13:44.6 S2: You're failing me. So, another good example of where AI isn't quite as knowledgeable as the professional.

0:13:52.5 S3: Right. That's a wa wa more.

0:13:54.6 S2: Yeah, 100%. A hydrating serum. I kind of was impressed with this course recommending hyaluronic acid, but it gave a nice over the counter recommendation that had B5 and hyaluronic acid. So I did like that. And then of course, moisturizer and SPF and all of that was just the morning routine.

0:14:16.2 S3: Whoa. It's a lot.

0:14:17.6 S2: Yeah. It is just a lot.

0:14:19.8 S3: That's a lot. It would be different if you did this routine for like a couple weeks next time. Right?

0:14:26.3 S2: Next time I'm gonna buy all these products. We'll do some before and afters and then we'll reconnect.

0:14:31.6 S3: Okay. Well, I'm gonna send you mine concerns and you can chatGPT it.

0:14:35.7 S2: Yeah, we should do you.

0:14:37.5 S3: Now. That'd be fun.

0:14:38.4 S2: I wanna see what it says. Now, listeners, we wanna hear from you. How do aestheticians manage this balance between AI generated advice and professional judgment? Share with us on social media through Instagram, Facebook, or by emailing Getconnected@ascpskincare.com. Thank you for listening to ASCP Esty Talk. And as always, for more information on this episode or for ways to connect with Ella and myself, or to learn more about ASCP, check out the show notes.