When Gen Z and Alpha stop trusting creators and start asking AI

A university sophomore from Henan known online as Ji (@吉) recently posted a confession on Xiaohongshu, one that has become increasingly common among young Chinese beauty consumers: she no longer trusts short-video recommendations. “There are too many ads,” she wrote. “I just want an honest answer.” Struggling with oily, acne-prone skin, large pores, and persistent dark spots, she turned instead to ByteDance’s AI assistant Doubao, asking it to design a full routine within her student budget. Doubao responded within seconds, producing a nine-step regimen complete with product names, clinical ingredients, usage instructions, and a calculated budget of roughly 1,000 RMB ($141) as well as direct purchase links highlighted in blue. The AI’s precision impressed her — but also left her unsettled. “Is this reliable?” she asked her followers. AI is becoming the first advisor many young Chinese consumers consult. QuestMobile revealed that AI apps in China have surpassed 700 million monthly active users (MAU), with Doubao alone exceeding 170 million MAU, making it the country’s most widely used consumer-facing AI tool. As Doubao integrates directly with Douyin Mall, ByteDance is rapidly building the world’s most advanced AI-first commerce infrastructure, where product discovery, evaluation, and purchase converge all into one stream. AI collapses the consumer shopping journey from discovery to final transaction For a decade, China’s beauty consumers have been conditioned to trust algorithmic curation. Douyin, Xiaohongshu (also known as RedNote), and Pinduoduo made recommendation-led discovery the norm. Doubao is accelerating that shift by removing the final friction point: the need to browse. “AI shopping assistants are driving a significant shift by removing friction from product discovery,” says Melissa Alcocer, founder and director of market intelligence agency Inluxury. “Instead of navigating hundreds of SKUs, consumers receive an immediate, ranked shortlist that aligns with their specific needs. For Gen Z, this feels natural — it delivers the relevance of a one-to-one consultation with the neutrality and privacy of a digital interface.” The result? A purchase journey that compresses minutes into seconds. Consumers don’t open Tmall to compare product pages; they ask Doubao for the answer. This shift is not limited to China. In April, OpenAI introduced shopping links in ChatGPT. By October, Walmart partnered with OpenAI to enable direct checkout inside the chatbot. AI commerce has become a global ambition — but China, once again, is the testing ground. When a niche mask beats Proya: AI neutrality or manipulation? Doubao’s most disruptive impact is in how it reshapes product visibility. Beauty consumers in China have long been influenced by top creators, viral moments, and platform-ranking algorithms. But generative AI is rewriting these hierarchies. The shock came when Doubao ranked a niche hydrating mask — from a Douyin store with just a few hundred followers — above industry giants such as Proya, Winona and La Roche-Posay. The decision puzzled consumers accustomed to seeing major brands dominate social feeds. For Guilhem Souche, senior advisor at Sthrive.AI and a former executive at L’Oréal, Dior, and Coty, this case reveals the new mechanics of AI influence. “Algorithms are beginning to reward credibility and relevance more than brand awareness,” he says. “If an independent product generates strong trust signals, the AI will push it forward.” But Souche cautions that neutrality is never absolute. “Every algorithm reflects the platform’s goals, its training data, and the balance it strikes between user benefit and commercial incentives,” he adds. This is where the next competitive frontier emerges: GEO, or generative engine optimisation. Traditional SEO mattered in a world of search-driven discovery; GEO matters in a world where AI answers your question directly. Brands must now create content that is structured, verifiable, and machine-readable — not simply keyword-rich. “Beauty brands need to think like data companies,” Alcocer says. “SEO is background hygiene. GEO will determine visibility.” China’s AI-first commerce becomes a blueprint China is the only major market where AI-driven advice is directly wired into a closed-loop commerce system. Doubao sits atop Douyin Mall, which means a product recommendation is only one tap away from checkout. The entire shopping journey — from problem to payment — unfolds in a single interface. Souche calls this the “fastest, most fluid retail model in the world.” In beauty, where impulse, emotion, and trial are central to purchase decisions, this seamlessness is particularly potent. Western markets are experimenting with similar systems. Walmart now lets users shop directly through ChatGPT; Carrefour is testing generative shopping baskets; Shopify, Target, and Amazon are experimenting with conversational assistants. But adoption lags far behind China. “Western consumers are more cautious,” Souche says. “Concerns around manipulation, data governance, and platform influence slow adoption.” Still, Alcocer believes the trajectory is clear. “Consumers everywhere want personalized shortlists and faster decision-making,” she says. “China is simply showing the future at speed.” The GEO reckoning: Content integrity and the risk of deception Doubao’s sudden influence has revived China’s debate around GEO — the next generation of SEO for the AI era. State media outlets including Guangming Daily and CCTV recently criticized GEO practices that attempt to game AI systems by feeding synthetic content, hijacked domains, and falsified white papers into model training pipelines. “China’s next regulatory wave will be far more interventionist,” Alcocer says. “We’re likely to see mandatory labeling of AI-generated or AI-enhanced content, much stronger transparency requirements around ranking logic and data sources, tighter limits on tactics designed to game generative engines, and far more rigorous verification of efficacy, safety, and before-and-after claims. AI-driven retail won’t remain a gray zone for long — it will be governed with the same intensity as traditional beauty advertising.” Platforms have already begun tightening controls, enhancing source verification and filtering content. As AI becomes a commercial layer, user trust has become the central tension. This tension is unlikely to fade. Platforms face rising inference costs and mounting pressure to monetize. Integrating shopping links into AI answers — as Doubao now does — is one of the clearest paths to revenue. For Aslada Gu, director of product and innovation at Gusto Collective, this balance is inevitable. “Platforms will need to balance brand-paid content with organic content, just like search engines and social platforms have done,” she says. “The goal is to maintain long-term user trust.” But she argues that the ultimate determinant of loyalty remains unchanged. “Regardless of how consumers discover a product — through AI or influencers — loyalty depends on actual usage experience,” she says. “If a product fails, no algorithm can preserve trust.” AI: A new retail reality China’s AI-first retail moment offers a clear preview of how global beauty commerce may evolve. The generative interface is rapidly becoming the starting point of discovery. Ranking logic is being rewritten. Consumer expectations for speed and clarity are rising. Alcocer believes brands must “think like data companies,” ensuring ingredient lists, clinical claims, and usage guidelines are structured in formats LLMs can ingest. Souche argues that emotional storytelling must evolve alongside AI optimization. In his words, “AI will handle convenience. Emotion and cultural depth will keep brands desirable.” Gu emphasizes integrity and authenticity, noting that no degree of AI optimization can compensate for poor efficacy. For consumers like Ji, the shift is already underway. She may question AI’s commercial motives, but the convenience is undeniable — and the habits are forming fast.

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When Gen Z and Alpha stop trusting creators and start asking AI