How E.l.f. Beauty is building AI into its community management

E.l.f. Beauty’s posts on TikTok and Instagram receive hundreds if not thousands of comments when they go online. Often, the comments include questions about when a product is launching, how the product compares to other E.l.f. offerings, or what type of skin or hair it’s appropriate for. To answer shoppers’ questions in real time, the company created an AI tool called E.l.f.luencer—trained on the company’s stylebook and years of human-written social comments—that autogenerates responses to comments left by consumers on social media platforms. The comments are approved by human community managers before being posted. “The tool saved a lot of time [for community managers],” says Ekta Chopra, the company’s chief technology and AI officer. “Our response rate was like 30%-40% before launching E.l.f.luencer. Fast forward, it’s gone above 80%; 90% of the comments are generated by AI in our brand tone, using the language and emojis E.l.f is known for. ” Chopra adds that artificial intelligence at the company is used to augment productivity, but all outputs are closely reviewed by human employees. This is just one initiative Chopra, a 10-year E.l.f. veteran, has overseen. In her role, Chop…