• by Evan Gettinger , July 25, 2026

What if everyone's been misreading the “rise of personalization” in personal care?

For years, brands have competed by giving consumers more choices: more products, more ingredients, more routines. But increasingly, consumers seem to want something else: fewer decisions.

According to Accenture, 73% of consumers say they're overwhelmed by too many product choices. Across categories, 74% have abandoned a purchase because they felt overwhelmed by the amount of information and effort required to make a decision.

In beauty, that number rises to 79%. Perhaps the most telling finding from the study is that buying a moisturizer is nearly as overwhelming for consumers as buying a washing machine, while buying probiotics is as challenging as buying a couch.

That should be a wake-up call. For decades, marketers have largely viewed choice as a source of value. But at some point, abundance creates friction.

Consumers don't just need information. They need help interpreting information. That's why some of the most interesting innovations emerging within personal care aren't products at all. They're systems.

Consider what's happening across the category:

• Smart toothbrushes such as Oral-B's iO Series provide real-time coaching rather than simply cleaning teeth.
• AI-powered skin diagnostics such as L'Oréal's Perso recommend routines based on changing skin conditions.
• Connected beauty platforms like No7's partnership with Revieve and Neutrogena's Skin360 continually refine recommendations instead of forcing consumers to restart the decision-making process every few months.

The common thread isn't technology -- it's intelligence and guidance. And the real innovation isn't personalization -- it's decision delegation.

A personalized experience still places most of the cognitive burden on the consumer. The consumer receives more relevant options, but still needs to compare, decide, and often second-guess.

Decision delegation reduces that burden. It helps consumers determine not only what products exist, but what action to take. This has implications far beyond personal care.

We're already seeing similar dynamics emerge in travel, financial services, healthcare, retail, and B2B software. The companies creating the most value are not necessarily the ones offering the most choice. They're the ones helping consumers and customers confidently navigate complexity.

Which brings us to an uncomfortable truth for marketers. Most digital platforms are optimized to measure attention: clicks, views, conversion. But decision delegation requires something much harder to earn: trust.

Consumers may accept product recommendations from an algorithm. They may even permit brands to guide increasingly consequential decisions, but only if they believe those recommendations are credible, unbiased, and aligned with their interests. This is where many organizations risk getting the balance wrong.

Brands that focus exclusively on performance metrics may drive short-term traffic while undermining the credibility needed to guide future decisions.

The winners will be the companies that invest in both. They will track engagement and brand equity. That’s conversion and trust, performance and perception.

The brands best positioned for a future of decision delegation aren't necessarily the ones with the smartest algorithms. They're the ones consumers trust enough to follow. That distinction may ultimately determine which brands become providers of products and which become providers of guidance.

In a world increasingly defined by complexity, decision support may become one of the most valuable services a brand can offer.