AI & ChatGPT for Beauty Schools
Parker Dickens
Director Of Accounts, Oozle Media
Introducing AI & ChatGPT
Parker Dickens:
Chris, again, thank you for the introduction. I’m really excited for today and everything that we’ve got going on to talk about in the chat, if you’re familiar with ChatGPT, or if you’ve heard of it in the last few months, just say “I’ve heard of it” or “I know what ChatGPT is.” If you’ve used it, maybe say that in the chat. Want to get a feel for who’s experienced with it and who isn’t. We’ve got almost 300 people on right now, so blow up the chat. And just to dive right in, we’ll kind of go through some of these things. I want to kind of want to let ChatGPT handle the formalities for me. So right before this session, I went ahead and I have asked ChatGPT to write an intro. I told a little bit about myself and gave the AI tool, the chat feature, a little bit about my session, a tiny bit, and I’ll let it introduce me.
So again, it’s a faux pas on presentations to read a slide to you and I’m going to be so bold as to do that. But let me go ahead and read what I got from ChatGPT.
Good morning, everyone. My name is Parker Dickens, I’m the director of accounts at Oozle Media. Today I’m excited to talk to you about AI and ChatGPT for beauty schools. AI, or artificial intelligence, is a powerful tool that’s been making waves in many industries, including marketing. ChatGPT, a language model developed by OpenAI, is just one example of how AI is changing the way we interact with customers and clients. As an advertising expert who’s worked with hundreds of beauty schools, I know firsthand the importance of staying on top of the latest marketing trends and tools. That’s why I’m excited to share with you today how AI and ChatGPT can help your school save time and money, as well as avoid common copyright pitfalls.
Before we dive into the specifics, let’s start with the basics. What is AI and how does it work? By the end of this presentation, you’ll have a better understanding of how AI can benefit your school, what you need to effectively use it, and where to turn for more information as this technology continues to evolve. So without further ado, let’s get started.
What is Artificial Intelligence (AI)?
And again, I wrote none of those words. I had ChatGPT introduce me there. Let’s dive in. Like I said, we’re going to go straight to what is artificial intelligence. And here you can see I’ve taken a reference from Levity.ai that categorizes it into a couple of subcategories. The overarching term, artificial intelligence, is the theory and development of computer systems that are able to perform tasks normally requiring human intelligence. So a lot of us have heard all sides of this to, “Oh ChatGPT is nothing special, it’s just regurgitating what it can find on the internet.”
And then there’s the other side of “Everybody, especially creatives, are going to lose their jobs” and stuff like that. And in a lot of ways, the truth is somewhere in the middle it’s going to be revolutionary, it’s going to be different, it is going to allow for different efficiencies. And when we went from in-person bank tellers to automated bank tellers, or ATMs, an entire industry of people had to service those, manufacture them came up and new jobs came out of it. We’ll see a lot of that come from the overarching AR artificial intelligence umbrella. To go a level deeper, you get into machine learning, which is the ability to learn without explicitly being programmed. So rather than saying “Here’s 50 pictures, six of them are birds, if it’s this picture, then it is a bird,” it can look at thousands of pictures of birds and see pictures that’s never seen before and identify those as birds, for example.
So kind of an interesting next layer. And then you get into deep learning, which is machine learning algorithms, just like we mentioned in the upper ring, but with brain-like logical structure of algorithms called artificial neural networks. What’s so revolutionary is some of the tools that are now available to the public, sometimes for free or very cheap, are in this deeper deep learning ring of artificial intelligence, which is really cool, really exciting, and yes, a little bit scary.
How Can Beauty Schools Benefit From This Tech?
So how can a beauty school benefit from this technology? I am about to show you a list and share some ideas that is not intended to be comprehensive. There’s probably a lot of different use cases, a lot of different tools. Every day, a new tool gets released. And so it is important to understand like there’s going to be changes, there’s going to be things that aren’t on this list, but I want to go through a couple.
So data analytics, data analysis, looking through some of your CRM data and identifying which students have the highest chance of success. I don’t know how many of you were able to attend the American Association of Cosmetology Schools annual conference last year, New Orleans, but there was a data analytics and analysis company that presented there. And they talked a lot about using machine learning to identify for their chain of schools or for their client schools that they work with, which students have the highest chance of success, and they don’t do that so that they pick students that are likely to succeed.
They do that so they know how to help the students who have a low chance of succeeding actually come out on top and increase their overall success rates, graduation rates, placement rates, licensure rates, etc.
Audience targeting. If you’re running ads, you can now use some of these deep learning models to go and find even bigger and better lookalike audiences. Content generation, I think that’s the low hanging fruit. There’s probably a lot of people are like, “Why am I paying a marketing agency to write blogs? I’ll just tell ChatGPT, write me a 2000 word blog. I’ll post that on my website, and I’ll get all the great SEO benefit.” And I’ll show you some of the maybe pitfalls or things to be aware of with doing that, here in a second.
Ad optimization. So writing social copy, headlines, description lines for your ads. Customer service, creating a chatbot. ChatGPT specifically now allows for companies to connect via API and create automated responses. It can talk just like a real human and provide answers about, how many hours is this going to take? How much is it going to cost? Do you offer financial aid? And it can come across as a very, very professional, real human being, as opposed to some of the logic-based if this, then that simple chatbots that Facebook and some other companies have rolled out in the past four or five years.And then there’s the beauty industry related tools that are really interesting. There’s apps out there that can look at your skin, take a picture of your face or scan your face and recommend products for specific skin conditions or specific services that may help. As well as augmented reality, makeup, nails, hair color.
Maybe before you get your nails done, you can use an app and see what color looks good with a dress you’re wearing, things like that. What hair color and would I look good bleaching my hair or not? I can check and see using augmented reality tools that use AI to know kind of how to make the image look realistic.
So a lot of cool stuff. Again, not comprehensive, but there are a lot of really, really exciting tools out there that are popping up every day. I’m sure a month from now we could do this presentation again and there’ll be more stuff.
Innovation is Happening Fast
And that’s what I wanted to present on this slide. I had this slide that was the headline of this slide is Innovation is Happening Fast. And when I started preparing for this presentation a couple of months ago, I had created kind of a step-by-step timeline of just OpenAI’s innovations with Dall-e, their image generation tool, ChatGPT, but then they rolled out ChatGPT, the paid version, and then ChatGPT four and things were happening so fast, the slide was so messy, I figured I would just tell you it’s happening fast rather than try and check every box.
And that’s just one company. Google has made major announcements this year. Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, has made major announcements. Snapchat just rolled out an AI interactive friend you can chat with, a tool. There are a lot of things that are happening very fast. I couldn’t put it all on one slide.
And that can be overwhelming. I understand as a business owner, a lot of you have already so many plates spinning and now keeping track of this technology which tools should you be investing in, and which ones to avoid? My session today is going to go a little bit into the doom and gloom and the things to be aware of, but that’s only because we have some awesome sessions from other Oozlers. Even Beauty as a Business, one of the vendors, is going to be talking about kind of the fun parts of AI. So I’m here in the morning, I’m going to be a little bit of the bad guy, just bringing the warning. And then again, at the end of this or throughout the day, you’re going to get some of the less doom and gloom and more of the here’s the actionable things, with Parker’s caveats from his presentation just to be aware of. So here are some of the pitfalls to be aware of.
Pitfalls to Be Aware of
So here’s some of the pitfalls to be aware of. The big one, compliance, as usual. Throw it in the chat if you’re sick of dealing with compliance, I know that that’s the bane of a lot of people’s existence and certainly is ours as an agency. But that’s one of the benefits of partnering with an agency that knows compliance is, they can help make sure that you don’t get into trouble. ChatGPT and these other AI tools, don’t know if they’re going to get you in trouble or not. I’ll show you an example in just a second.
Can be difficult to produce the intended outcome. Again, I’ve got some great examples there.
And it can be expensive. There’s so many new tools, so many companies popping up every day. It’s certainly a lot cheaper than having an AI tool would’ve been last year, but it can add up quick. You buy 10 tools, that all cost 50 bucks a month, you’re at 500 bucks a month and now you’ve got to have a specialist that knows how to work all 10 of those tools.
And then again, AI produced content does not provide new insight right now. Ranking algorithms are already updated to detect and devalue auto-generated content. So Google is already penalizing people who are just blanket-generating content and posting it. So just something to be aware of.
Compliance
So let’s look at this. This is another example from ChatGPT and I’m sorry to read to you all. I know you can all read, but I’m going to read this paragraph and we’ll take a look at it bit by bit here. All I asked ChatGPT to do was generate an ad to get new students to attend my beauty school’s cosmetology program.
And it said, no problem. Here’s the ad it wrote. I didn’t give it a length, I didn’t tell it was going to be used for social media or it was going to be used for ads. So it’s a little long, but here’s what it said.
Attention all aspiring beauty professionals. Are you ready to turn your passion for beauty into a rewarding career? Look no further than our top-rated beauty school’s cosmetology program. Our comprehensive program offers hands-on training in a variety of beauty services including hairstyling, makeup, application, nail care, and skincare. Our experienced instructors will guide you through the latest techniques and trends in the industry, ensuring that you graduate fully equipped with the skills and knowledge to succeed. Not only will you receive top-notch education, but you’ll also have access to our extensive network of industry connections, providing you with opportunities to network and build your professional portfolio.
Plus, with flexible scheduling options and financial aid available to those who qualify, our program is accessible to everyone. Don’t wait any longer to pursue your dreams in the beauty industry. Enroll in our cosmetology program today and take the first steps towards a rewarding career and beauty.
I have not edited this in any way. That is what I got from the AI. Put it in the chat if you think this isn’t compliant, maybe put some examples in the chat if you can spot some things that aren’t compliant. If there’s anything in here or if it is compliant, throw that in the chat too. If you think this is compliant, say “It’s good to go.” I would love to get some opinions in the chat. Jenna, “So many issues here.” Anyone else I’ve got thoughts on? Anything else standing out to folks? “Top-rated”? Yep, “Top-rated not compliant.”
Yes. So many potential compliance issues. “Over promises.” Yes, agreed, glad we’ve got a couple compliance experts in the chat here. Let’s take a look at the next slide here. I’ve highlighted some of those… I don’t even know if I got them all. But a cursory overview, promising a “rewarding career,” using terms like “top-rated” and “hands-on training”. “Comprehensive program” is a promise you can’t state. “Ensuring that you graduate fully equipped,” that’s a guarantee that schools couldn’t back up. Top-notch. Education “accessible to everyone. And then enrolling today, sometimes if you’re not actually able to enroll today, you can only apply today, can get you in trouble. And again, promising a rewarding career. All things to be aware of that could get you in trouble. And again, it’s not just NACAS and it’s not just the Department of Education. The FTC has been cracking down on using over promising or false marketing, false advertising.
So all things to be aware of that if you were just maybe hiring a part-time social media specialist or niece, nephew, grandkid, family, you see that a lot, that may not be as familiar with the industry. This ad could get you into hundreds of thousands of dollars of trouble, not just tens of thousands with the fines and things. And you’ll get fined for every time an infraction is posted. I do got to give it credit though, “financial aid available for those who qualify.” It did get “for those who qualify” right.
What Does it Take to Get an AI-Generated Image?
So let’s talk about what it takes to get an AI generated image. Maybe text isn’t great, but let’s just jump into images here. I’ve produced a couple of examples using a couple different models. So this one’s not an OpenAI tool. This is from Stable Diffusion and at first glance, these are exactly what I asked it for. “Stock photo of woman cutting hair in nice salon.”
And then you look at the fingers and you look at the hair and you get a little look at the cheeks in the middle one and it got the Getty Images kind of. That took the stock photo a little bit too literally, on the right.
And so I was like, “Okay, Stable Diffusion didn’t quite get it. Let’s try with Dall-e.” OpenAI’s been doing this for a long time. Asked it the exact same thing, “stock photo of woman cutting hair in a salon.” Little bit better. First glance, I’m using these. I’m going to post these on social media. And then you look at the hands. Where are these scissors coming from? Where is this finger coming from? It’s just not quite right. We’re still in kind of Uncanny Valley. And I know that you can do longer prompts, but you got to be an expert.
Here I did a longer prompt, I said, “Create a realistic image of a person cutting hair in a modern and elegant salon. The hairstylist should be using professional tools and equipment with a client sitting comfortably in a sleek styling chair. The salon should be well lit and clean and tidy surfaces and decorative accents to give the space a luxurious feel.” And the middle picture isn’t even a realistic image. It’s an animation. The right-hand side, the hair looks a little bit fake going down and I just couldn’t quite get it. So I ended up copying a very long… I didn’t even get anything good with people in some of these prompts, and I’ve spent hundreds of hours working with image generation and AI tools. I can’t even imagine jumping in for the first place.
So to get this realistic image with no people of this house that doesn’t exist, that’s the prompt, on the left-hand side. There’s a lot of designers, architectural designers, interior designers. You’re talking about yes, mentions, photorealism, architectural photography, magazines or websites it would be featured in or on, and aspect ratios and different image qualities. Just to get an image.
So again, if you’re thinking about jumping ship or letting go of your social media expert in-house because you can go and generate images on your own, I might think twice until the technology advances a little bit further.
The Cost of AI
And again, it can be expensive. So here’s a quote. “There’s no need for your own AI team or consultant agency. All you need is clear goals and budgets set. You can expect AI software to cost anywhere from $5,000 to $50,000 per month, with a few exceptions that exceed that.” That’s what comes up when you Google “how much does adding AI to my company cost”.
That’s from May of 2022, so almost a year ago now. Today, access ranges. It’s a lot cheaper from free to a few hundred dollars per month. But I will say, as always, you get what you pay for. Many companies that have used AI, this is a real example. You can go to the Bitly link in the source if you want to read more of this example. This isn’t an example of anything that we were working on, but an interesting blog topic of a company that generated lots and lots of articles all at once. And you can see their traffic really went up and they were getting a lot of benefits from it. You can kind of see looking at this from August to, it looks like just over the course of maybe a few months, or even just a few weeks.
And then Google caught on, they changed their algorithm, and they just tanked almost right back to zero, got penalized for it. There are ways to use AI to generate an outline or a base model, which you can then add original thoughts and insights to.
But again, you’ve got to remember, these models are pulling from a real data set that already exists. It’s not to the point where it’s inventing new ideas. So you need to provide that value. You need to answer the questions that apply to your school and the content and social media that you are creating. And so again, maybe you do have it generate and take the first 80% pass. You still need an expert, whether that’s you, an agency, an in-house partner, to clean it up, polish the edges, make sure that you’re adding valuable insights and thoughts, and formatting and structuring it in a way that has SEO best practices built in, as well.
Oozle Media is Looking Out For You!
So just word of caution there. But again, I know that you guys, as beauty school owners, have a lot of plate spinning. We don’t expect you, and I don’t think you should expect yourselves, to basically stay on top of this. It’s very difficult for marketing experts to even stay on top of the innovation that is happening on a daily basis, let alone someone who’s trying to run a beauty school, stay compliant, work with the students, work with the salon guests, and just make sure that everything’s running smoothly. So we’re looking out for you. We’re investing, we’re researching. We’ve paid for a lot of these tools. Some of them we’re still paying for, some of them we’ve already canceled. They don’t provide the miracles they say they do. We’ll publish more blogs this year. We’re going to be doing more webinars on this topic.
Again, Beauty as a Business is speaking later. I know they’re excited to talk about what they’re going to be able to offer some of your students when it comes to AI. Our research will help us provide your schools with more value. So we’ll be able to do more for the same dollars that you’re spending and provide more value. And again, just the word of caution, now is probably not a great time. I know it’s trendy, it’s a buzzword, but if you’re looking out for the best interests of your business, it’s probably not a great time to make a major AI-related change to your marketing strategy or business strategy in general.
Contact Parker For More Info!
Thank you so much for your time. I know I’m right up on mine. I appreciate it. If anyone would like any of my time, I am always happy to jump on, I’ll do an hour consultation. I’ve been working with Oozle Media for almost seven years now. I’ve worked with hundreds of beauty schools at this point. I would love to meet with you. Shoot me an email. I know that everyone’s going to get it in the chat throughout the day as we talk about giveaways. Like Chris said, I’m working behind the scenes. But again, reach out. pdickens@oozlemedia.com. Thank you so much, Chris. Back to you.
Chris Linford:
Thank you, Parker. Awesome information. I think I just want to add, just knowing that those images are not real people and then looking at their hands makes it extra creepy.
Parker Dickens:
Absolutely.