How Top Brands Train Employees to Use AI Tools

AI Is No Longer Optional: How Beauty and Wellness Brands Are Getting Serious About Employee Training

Artificial intelligence has moved well beyond the buzzword phase. In boardrooms, on retail floors, and inside product development labs, AI tools are now shaping how the world's leading beauty and wellness brands operate. At Glossy's annual E-Commerce Summit, executives from powerhouse names including Ulta Beauty, Sephora, Supergoop!, SharkNinja, Tarte, and Beekman 1802 gathered to share the tactics they are using to implement AI not just at the executive level, but across every layer of their organizations. The message was clear: the brands winning today are the ones that are actively training their people to work alongside AI, not waiting for the technology to figure itself out.

Why Employee AI Training Has Become a Strategic Priority

For years, AI adoption in retail and beauty was largely confined to backend operations — demand forecasting, inventory management, and personalization algorithms that customers never saw directly. That has changed dramatically. Today, AI tools are embedded in content creation, customer service, social media strategy, trend prediction, and even product formulation. This shift means that frontline employees, marketing coordinators, and mid-level managers need genuine fluency with these tools, not just a surface-level awareness of what they are.

Brand leaders at the summit emphasized that the biggest barrier to AI adoption is not the technology itself — it is the human side of the equation. Teams that do not trust AI outputs, do not know how to prompt tools effectively, or do not understand where AI fits into their workflows end up slowing down the very processes the technology is meant to accelerate. Structured, ongoing training programs are the solution that top brands are investing in to bridge this gap.

Winning Tactics From the Summit Floor

Start With Use Cases, Not Tools

One of the most repeated themes from summit speakers was the importance of anchoring AI training in real, day-to-day problems rather than leading with the technology itself. When employees understand that an AI writing assistant can cut the time they spend drafting product descriptions in half, or that an AI analytics tool can surface customer sentiment trends in minutes instead of days, adoption becomes much more intuitive. Brands like Tarte and Supergoop! have reportedly built internal training programs that begin with a use-case library — a curated set of actual workflow examples where AI delivers measurable value.

Build Internal Champions

Several brand leaders at the summit described the value of identifying and empowering internal AI champions within their organizations. These are employees — often in marketing, e-commerce, or product development — who are naturally enthusiastic about new technology and willing to experiment. By giving these individuals dedicated time, access to premium tools, and a platform to share their learnings, brands create a peer-to-peer training ecosystem that scales far more effectively than top-down mandates.

Create Guardrails Without Killing Creativity

A recurring concern among brand leaders was the question of brand safety. When employees across different departments use AI to generate content, there is a real risk of inconsistency in voice, messaging, and visual identity. Companies like Ulta Beauty and Sephora have addressed this by developing internal AI usage guidelines — essentially a playbook that defines which tools are approved, how outputs should be reviewed before publication, and what types of tasks AI should and should not handle independently. The goal is to create structure without stifling the creative momentum that AI tools can unlock.

The Broader Wellness Industry Is Betting Big on Technology

The conversation about AI at the summit did not exist in a vacuum. It was part of a much larger wave of technology investment sweeping through the wellness sector, reinforced by several major announcements making headlines around the same time.

Ōura Launches Its Smallest Ring Yet

Finnish health-tech company Ōura made waves with the release of its most compact smart ring to date. The device, aimed at users who find the existing form factor bulky, continues the brand's mission of making continuous health monitoring as frictionless as possible. As wearables become more discreet and more capable, the data they generate will increasingly feed into the AI-powered wellness recommendations that brands and health platforms are racing to deliver.

Unilever Invests $270 Million in a New Connecticut R&D Hub

Consumer goods giant Unilever announced a significant $270 million investment in a new research and development facility in Connecticut. The hub is expected to accelerate innovation across Unilever's personal care and wellness portfolio, with AI-assisted formulation and ingredient research expected to play a central role. For the broader beauty and wellness industry, this signals that legacy corporations are not stepping back from science-led innovation — they are doubling down on it.

Vladimir Putin Commits $26 Billion to Longevity Research

In a move that underscores how seriously longevity science is being taken at the highest levels of global power, reports emerged that Russia has committed approximately $26 billion toward longevity and anti-aging research initiatives. While geopolitical context matters, the sheer scale of this investment is a reflection of a worldwide appetite for breakthroughs in human healthspan — an area where AI-driven drug discovery and biomarker analysis are already playing a transformative role.

Planet Fitness Continues to Scale

On the fitness side of the wellness economy, Planet Fitness demonstrated continued expansion momentum, reinforcing that accessible, value-oriented fitness models retain enormous consumer appeal even as premium boutique concepts compete for attention. As gyms of all formats increasingly integrate AI-powered coaching apps, wearable data integrations, and personalized workout recommendations, the gap between physical fitness spaces and digital wellness platforms is narrowing rapidly.

What This Means for the Future of Beauty and Wellness Brands

The picture emerging from Glossy's E-Commerce Summit and the surrounding industry news is one of accelerating convergence. AI is not just a productivity tool — it is becoming a core competency that defines competitive advantage in beauty and wellness. Brands that invest early in training their people, building their internal AI infrastructure, and integrating technology thoughtfully across the customer journey will be far better positioned to grow in an increasingly data-driven marketplace.

The brands that stood out at the summit were not necessarily the ones with the most sophisticated AI tech stacks. They were the ones with the clearest strategies, the most educated teams, and the strongest commitment to learning as the technology continues to evolve. In the AI era, the winners will be those who can adapt fastest — and that starts with their people.

Prioritize use-case-driven AI training programs that connect tools to real workflow challenges employees face daily.
Identify internal champions who can model effective AI usage and share learnings peer-to-peer across departments.
Develop clear brand-safety guidelines that govern how AI outputs are reviewed and approved before going live.
Stay informed on broader industry investments in AI and wellness technology, as these trends signal where the competitive landscape is heading.
Approach AI adoption as a continuous process rather than a one-time implementation project.

The wellness industry is at an inflection point. The brands choosing to lead — not follow — on AI adoption are already pulling ahead. The question every brand leader should be asking right now is not whether to invest in AI, but how to build the internal culture and capabilities that make that investment pay off.