Coterie and Laura Geller at CommerceNext26: Problem First, AI Second

Coterie’s Marissa Steinmetz and AS Beauty Group’s Maureen Massry, in conversation with Shopify’s Madeline Michaelson, said both companies start AI adoption by defining the business problem before choosing a tool.

Coterie’s “largest tenet is making parents’ lives easier,” Steinmetz said, “so AI was secondary. It was customer-centricity first, then perhaps powered by AI. We didn’t start with how much AI can we adopt to build fast. We started with what’s the problem to solve, and is this the right tool to solve it.”

She said AI has become an excellent thought partner, “especially in product management, where you’re writing briefs and risk assessments.” “My favorite prompts are: what am I missing? What’s the biggest risk here? What am I not asking you? If I deliver this to so-and-so, what questions will they have?” she said. “It makes me and my team better PMs and designers.”

Steinmetz was candid about the parts that are still unfinished. “Everyone’s excited to try different flavors, but it hasn’t yet become a team sport. Each team uses a different tool, a different model,” she said. “The key isn’t all using the same tool; it’s doing it in a safe space that protects proprietary business data. I’m a PM, so it’s excitement and adoption with a healthy level of skepticism about where the edges are.”

Massry said AI tools now let Laura Geller meet customers “live and at scale,” recommending complementary products, a brush, a lipstick, a mascara, based on what a shopper is browsing or abandoning. “Something we never had the bandwidth to do,” she said.

She described a specific experiment with a counterintuitive result. Worried that offering a higher-coverage foundation on a hero product page would cannibalize the best-seller, Laura Geller tried it anyway. “We actually did better, because we gave the customer what she wanted in the moment,” she said. “She may not know she wants more coverage; she just knows her need.”

AI is now embedded across Laura Geller’s operations, from day-to-day emails to project planning to data analytics. “Analytics is the biggest win, work that took weeks or months we now do in minutes,” Massry said. On National Mascara Day, the brand runs an age-based discount, if a customer is 58 she gets 58% off, and used AI to build redemption stress models that helped secure a bigger investment into the program.

The team also used a development AI tool to build a shade-finder on the site. Foundation is hard to buy online, so when a customer toggles between shades a few times, a prompt appears offering to help her find the right one. “In an A/B test we saw almost a 9% lift in conversion, built and analyzed largely by AI,” Massry said.

Her closing point was cultural. “AI adoption starts with culture. There’s no stigma about using it alongside our work,” she said. “When leadership encourages it, people feel secure, and it’s clear AI works alongside us, never replacing us.”