At Shiny, Fashionable Retail and Digiday’s AI Advertising and marketing Methods digital occasion on Wednesday, Beekman 1802’s chief digital officer, David Baker, made one factor clear: AI isn’t right here to switch entrepreneurs, it’s right here to make them sharper.
“The playbook continues to be being written,” Baker stated. “There actually are not any greatest practices apart from to maintain attempting.”
Baker, who oversees digital and CRM technique on the skin-care model recognized for its goat-milk formulation, shared how his workforce is utilizing AI to grasp prospects on a deeper degree, personalize advertising and transfer quicker, all with out shedding the model’s human contact.
Beekman 1802 has partnered with AI analytics agency Bezel to make sense of its troves of first-party knowledge. By feeding CRM and Shopify insights into giant language fashions, Baker’s workforce uncovered buyer personas that now information every little thing from marketing campaign technique to product messaging. “We have been capable of throw all of our knowledge at a big language mannequin and actually perceive deeply who this client is and what number of subtypes of client we have now,” he stated.
Two standout profiles emerged: Funds Betty, the deal-driven shopper who loves promotions however nonetheless values innovation, and Luxurious Linda, who desires the highest-efficacy formulation and isn’t afraid to spend for outcomes. These AI-generated insights don’t simply phase audiences but additionally form how Beekman communicates. “Once we launch a product that we all know goes to do rather well with Luxurious Linda, however perhaps not Funds Betty, we will focus our efforts there,” Baker defined.
Past defining prospects, Beekman makes use of AI to check its creatives extra rapidly. The model has developed its personal immediate circulation, a step-by-step course of that turns buyer insights into marketing campaign concepts. “It begins by reminding the mannequin who we’re — clear, scientific skincare, ingredient-forward — after which we establish who we’re speaking to,” Baker stated. “From there, we ask the mannequin to generate motivators, themes, and even hooks and calls to motion.” What as soon as took weeks of inventive brainstorming can now occur in below an hour. “It’s taking our groups from being writers to being editors,” he stated. “We’re honing and perfecting the output slightly than ranging from scratch.”
This hybrid strategy retains human judgment entrance and middle. “We’re not turning it over to the computer systems,” Baker stated. “We’re refining it at each step.” Certainly one of his greatest challenges has been serving to the workforce see AI as an ally. “The robots are usually not coming to your jobs,” he stated. “They’re altering your jobs.” He in contrast the shift to the web’s early days: “AI is a software just like the web was. The web modified how we labored; AI is altering how we work.”
As a substitute of mandating AI use throughout departments, Beekman focuses on empowering early adopters. “If somebody’s actually motivated by this, what are you able to do as a frontrunner to release their time to allow them to 10x your workforce’s means?” That focus has paid off. The model has seen double-digit enhancements in ROAS and buyer acquisition effectivity over the previous yr.
AI’s affect now extends throughout Beekman’s operations. By way of CRM firm Postscript’s “Shopper” software, the model is testing one-to-one SMS advertising, tailoring messages based mostly on when and the way every buyer retailers. “It appears to be like at what time they’re most definitely to obtain, what they’ve bought or seen, and what merchandise complement that,” Baker stated. “Traditionally, that will’ve taken method an excessive amount of manpower.”
Even creator partnerships are getting smarter. “We are able to now supply creators not simply by follower depend, but additionally by tone, pacing and on-camera fashion,” he stated.
For Baker, the subsequent AI frontier isn’t in inventive — it’s in analytics and forecasting. “The maths half has been more difficult than the inventive half,” he stated. “What actually excites me is utilizing AI to tighten our stock, perceive retail and DTC gross sales in actual time, and get that perception the second we get up.”
If the previous yr has been about testing, 2026 will probably be about integration. “AI helps us do extra, quicker, but it surely’s nonetheless about protecting that actual, genuine story,” Baker stated. “Particularly in skincare, customers anticipate to see actual individuals and actual outcomes.”
Baker’s takeaway for entrepreneurs navigating AI: “Be curious, be moral and preserve testing. The manufacturers that lean in early would be the ones that outline what comes subsequent.”
