Our aim is to be a frontrunner

Journalist: Isabel Hempen | Photographer: Markus Bertschi

Ms Müller, digitalisation is one of Weleda’s strategic priorities. What does that mean exactly?
We focus on three main areas in relation to digitalisation. Firstly, on digital commerce with our online shop and selling on platforms like Amazon and Douglas. Secondly, on digital marketing, as we want to have a much stronger presence on social media channels. And thirdly, on data management including ChatGPT. We’ve developed a ChatGPT version for Weleda, which we’ve fed all our knowledge into and rolled out for use across the entire company. Doing this enabled us to evaluate our global employee survey, for example.

You want to have a greater presence on social media – how important are these platforms for Weleda?
Besides Instagram, TikTok is extremely important for us, both in terms of inspiration and information as well as commerce. TikTok is expected to become the largest beauty channel, not least because the platform now also has a shop feature. We’ve already generated initial sales on the platform in England and the USA. Next year, the feature will also be available for continental Europe.

Social media creates – sometimes questionable – trends, especially in the beauty industry. How does Weleda deal with this?
As a brand, we assume responsibility and we have a clear stance on what we stand for and what we don’t. For example, when we recently promoted our rosemary shampoo on TikTok, it quickly sold out. We had no more rosemary in stock and it’s only harvested once a year. I could’ve said “We’ll buy rosemary from anywhere, regardless of the conditions in which it grows, and we’ll produce the product under high pressure”. It would’ve been good for business, but wouldn’t have been in line with our values. Weleda conducts business responsibly. As a brand, we have an influence on society.

Responsibility is also an important issue when it comes to artificial intelligence.
Exactly. When artificial intelligence (AI) is used to create virtual worlds that have nothing to do with reality and nature, at Weleda we’ve clearly reached our limits. We won’t use artificially generated faces and models. As a natural cosmetics company, the naturalness of our brand must also be visible in our marketing.

What other significance does AI have for Weleda?
AI represents a great opportunity for Weleda to become more efficient and agile. It supports us in various ways, such as when communicating with our customers in the online shop and in individual communication. In the future, AI will also be used in the labs and it can play an interesting role in the cultivation of our medicinal plants as well as in agricultural partnerships. For instance, if we use AI to record the ingredients and action mechanisms of our 800 or so medicinal plants, the algorithm can suggest new plant combinations depending on the desired effect on the skin.

Léa Steinacker, a proven AI expert, joined the Weleda board of directors this year. What do you expect from her?
I expect Léa to provide continuous momentum in the areas of digitalisation and AI. We want to have as diverse a range of skills as possible on our board of directors. In other words, in addition to pharmaceutical and financial experts, we also want digitalisation expertise. Léa’s background started out in humanities and she developed into the tech sector from there. She takes a comprehensive view of technology and its impact on society. She’s the perfect fit for us.

In your opinion, what conditions are essential for a successful collaboration between humans and machines?
First and foremost, gender bias must be eliminated. If algorithms are only trained using male-biased information, the results will also be male-dominated. For example, if you ask ChatGPT “Show me a CEO”, the AI presents a man, even though the word CEO is gender-neutral. Eradicating this bias is difficult because algorithms thrive on data – and if the data isn’t diverse, the results won’t be diverse.

How do you rate the current regulation of technologies like AI?
In my opinion, the regulations that the EU has introduced are good and sufficient. More regulation would be harmful, as it would otherwise cause us to fall behind other regions of the world like the USA and Asia. In Europe, a little more courage to take risks would do us good. If we move forward and try new things, opportunities for growth and new business models can emerge. This also requires courage. For Weleda it’s important, for example, to be one of the first cosmetics brands to sell its products on TikTok. Our aim is to be a frontrunner.

How do your employees react to technological developments?
There are many professional fields at Weleda in which digitalisation doesn’t play a role. But it’s important that employees in these areas also understand the opportunities that advancing digitalisation offers within the company. This is where clear communication is crucial. When I started at Weleda in October 2023, we took part in Black Friday for the first time with our online shop. We discussed it beforehand: We’ve never done Black Friday before, is it necessary? Is it the right thing to do? From my point of view, yes, because we need to follow the rules of the market. If we want to grow and be competitive, we have to offer a Black Friday discount in e-commerce. Today, almost a year later, it’s no longer a point of discussion. The team understands that the online channel works in a different way to brick-and-mortar retail.

How do you make sure that Weleda remains people-centred?
Our foundation and our purpose – ‘health and beauty in harmony with nature and the human being’ – are so strong that we can’t lose sight of our employees or our consumers. Technology, as we understand it, should be used for the benefit of humanity, the environment and the planet, not against them.

Which technological trends do you think will be crucial in the next five years?
Product traceability will be an important area. I can imagine every Weleda product featuring a QR code that shows where the individual ingredients were grown and when they were harvested, for example. It’s also likely that more and more social media channels will be converted into sales platforms, probably at the expense of physical stores. The big trend in e-commerce is also personalisation and the individual approach. The more we know about our customers and their preferences, the greater the probability that we’ll offer them a product that they’ll buy. AI will play a major role in this.