Japanese AI services mira and AILL help users to reveal their hidden charm
We’re seeing a remarkable increase in AI utilization within the beauty industry. In Japan, two startups, launched by female entrepreneurs, are contributing to this new world of innovative AI usage. One is mira, a service which analyzes user’s facial features to recommend and personalize beauty and fashion items. The other is AILL, which helps guide the feelings involved in user-to-user communication.
AI to help you be the best you
mira is a service that picks up data about a person’s face — how the parts of their face go together, and the size and shape of those parts — and analyzes them with AI. From this, it diagnoses what type of face the user has and even points out what famous person they may resemble. Furthermore, based on these results, it can recommend a variety of content optimized to the user, such as suitable cosmetics and fashion items and relevant articles on the web.
mira’s business model is to first have users get to know their own face type and then offer a variety of services.
Asuka Kadowaki, CEO of Kindler, Inc. which operates mira, explains that she sees “the first generation of recommendations as being via magazines and stores, while the second generation has been through influencers that make use of social media. The next, third generation is personalization made possible by AI. What makes mira different, and gives it a competitive edge, is its original algorithm that personalizes to each user. Another aspect is how it is a total service that handles not just cosmetics but also clothing coordination.”
Yet another distinctive aspect of mira is how it doesn’t target a particular age group. From consumers who buy a small number of high-priced goods to those who haul in large numbers of cheaper-priced goods, mira’s supposed target is anyone “who is interested in beauty and is always keen to find products that suit themselves.”
It’s also worth noting that actual people are behind mira’s AI recommendations. These are beauty consultants and fashion stylists partnered with mira, and users are able to talk directly with them about how to act on the results of their face diagnosis.
CEO Kadowaki says that mira’s aim is to “provide an experience where the service you normally get at a department store booth with a beauty specialist can be readily available at your fingertips from your smartphone”. She revealed that moving forward the company plans to make possible personalized recommendations from a variety of different perspectives, while also getting better acquainted with makeup and fashion-related brands in the Asian region. Statistically, mira is aiming for 100 to 500 thousand downloads within 2019.
AI that assists in communication between people
AILL is an AI service that aims to help out in romantic relationships. China Toyoshima, CEO of operating company AILL inc., came up with the idea of utilizing AI to support communication between couples when she previously worked at a major drug manufacturer.
With the busyness of everyday life making it harder to meet people, let alone foster a loving relationship, Toyoshima wanted to create a service that could enhance people’s “work-life synergy” to create a balance between their work life and personal life, and the answer to this was an AI service. AILL is an AI engine working at the back-end of a chat service. Each day it introduces a user to up to three other users of the opposite sex based on data of their lifestyles and career plans. However, unlike other AI matching services, AILL doesn’t stop there.
The novelty of this service is how the AI assists in the chatting between the two newly-introduced users. Based on how the other person responds, the AI provides recommendations as to when is the best time to ask them on a date or what conversation topics will likely spark their interest.
The advice the AI gives isn’t only for making a favorable impression through good conversation, it also tries to further the relationship — whether that might be at the level of simply getting to know each other better or searching for a life partner.
At this stage, AILL is currently being pushed for implementation as a part of employee welfare services for companies through BtoB channels.
Toyoshima points out that recently in many work environments, although working hours have been shrinking thanks to reforms in the way people work, there are higher expectations for results than before. She explains that “work-life synergy is something that can help to raise the engagement of workers. Especially in Japan, it’s being made clear from surveys and statistics that this trend is strong (that a healthy private life helps to improve a person’s performance at work).”
Toyoshima says that through analyzing people’s love lives with AI, you can start to see what type of situations they react well to and also potentially begin to understand what they truly want in life. Plus, this type of AI-driven assistance also has applications in the beauty industry.
For example, consider that beauty concerns can be surprisingly difficult to talk about even with close friends and family members. However, conversing with AI tends to have a lower psychological barrier. By implementing into their services the ability for customers to get precise advice behind a protected veil of secrecy, companies may find they can achieve a greater level of intimacy with their customers.
Both mira and AILL are highly original services that use their algorithms to decipher users’ individuality and feelings to come up with the most optimal solutions for them. Moreover, these two services also stand out in that they’re each headed by female CEOs, something that’s still rare in the field of AI services and also generally in startups. The endeavors of Kadowaki and Toyoshima will no doubt be the considerable inspiration for the younger generations who are looking to make their mark one day.
Text: Tor Ching Li
Original text (Japanese): Jonggi HA
