I let a robot do my manicure at Ulta

In my suburban Boston Ulta, I’m sitting with my hand in a little box. I’ve been promised that in roughly 30 minutes I’ll have nails that are shaped, buffed, and painted—not by a human, but by an AI-powered robot.

It feels like an episode of The Jetsons come to life, but the truth is that the AI boom has officially entered the physical world. Most of us interact with artificial intelligence through screens—Gemini drafts our emails, ChatGPT summarizes our docs—but behind the scenes, engineers are racing to give AI hands and feet. Robots already pack boxes in warehouses and make guacamole in fast-food kitchens. Soon, they will be washing dishes, taking care of pets, and performing your manicure.

Here at Ulta, the robot holding my hand was built by Boston-based startup 10Beauty. After six years of R&D and $50 million in venture funding, the company has created a machine meant to replicate the entire manicure process: polish removal, shaping, buffing, and painting. The company plans to roll the robots out to Ulta, Nordstrom, and high-end salons later this year. The manicures will be priced at $30—no tipping required.

But first comes the beta test. Ulta has agreed to pilot the machines in select stores, where customers can get free manicures while 10Beauty gathers real-world data. Human nail techs stand by to fix mistakes, ensuring customers still leave with salon-worthy nails.

“We’ve done more than a thousand manicures on real people already,” says Justin Effron, 10Beauty’s cofounder. “That’s how we’ll figure out exactly what works and what doesn’t. We’re cocreating this with customers.”

The Benefits of Being an Early Adopter

Kecia Steelman, Ulta’s CEO, says the retailer is now on a mission to weave AI into nearly every corner of the business—from experimenting with agents like ChatGPT to fine-tuning its inventory management. “None of us have figured it out,” she says. “But you’ve got to start moving in that direction and pivot as things continue to change. That’s what’s going to separate strong retailers in the future.”

The robot manicures are an example of one such pivot. The 10Beauty team reached out to Ulta, whose leadership team was intrigued by the way the technology fuses AI with a service that customers are asking for. The nail salon industry is expected to hit $14 billion by the end of this year. Ulta already differentiates itself from rivals like Sephora by offering in-store beauty services, often in suburban strip malls. But rising labor costs and finding skilled nail technicians can make it challenging to meet the demand.

Ulta has agreed to buy hundreds of 10Beauty’s machines when they officially launch this summer. But it has also taken the bold move of allowing 10Beauty to test the service with customers. “This pilot allows us to learn alongside [10Beauty], gathering real guest feedback, understanding how the technology performs in a retail environment, says Amiee Bayer-Thomas, Ulta’s chief retail officer. “We can shape what the future of tech-enabled beauty services could look like.”

The Robot Manicurist

I’m among the group of early testers. The robot works on one hand at a time—intentionally. In focus groups, 10Beauty found that users wanted to be able to continue using their phone with their other hand.

I slide my left hand into the machine and try not to move as seven cameras scan my fingers, creating a precise 3D map of each nail. Then a robotic arm gets to work, tackling one finger at a time using tools far smaller and more precise than what a human would use.

Instead of cotton pads, 10Beauty designed a star-shaped sponge that glides over the nail to remove polish. Instead of clippers, it uses a crystal file to shape the nail safely. And rather than cutting cuticles, it applies a softening serum and gently pushes them back with a brush. That part, I’ll admit, didn’t quite work. The brush barely touched my cuticles at all.

Then came the moment of truth: painting. A thin brush applied delicate layers of polish to each nail. This is where things went sideways. Some nails had bare gaps along the edges; others overshot the mark, leaving polish on my skin.

Effron wasn’t surprised. “We’re working on a software update that should fix this,” he says. “And even after launch, we’ll keep improving it based on how customers use it.”

A human nail tech quickly stepped in, cleaned up the polish, and applied a top coat. From start to finish—including drying—the whole process took under 40 minutes. Eventually, Effron says, the goal is to do both hands in about 20 minutes.

The Future of AI Is Physical

Walking out, it was clear the robot still isn’t as good as a human manicurist—yet. But the appeal was obvious. The machines don’t depend on skilled labor, which means manicures could become cheaper, faster, and available 24/7. You could imagine them popping up in airports, hotels, coffee shops—or, one day, even your own bathroom.

Ulta believes that by being an early adopter, it might be able to influence how these manicure robots evolve. “We saw this as an opportunity to bring something entirely new into the store experience,” says Bayer-Thomas. “Piloting early allows us to help shape the experience, ensure it meets our guests’ expectations, and continue delivering newness and excitement.”

Effron argues that the beauty industry is full of tasks—blow-drying hair, dyeing roots, plucking brows—that could be easier with machines. The challenge, of course, is proximity to the human body. Beauty requires precision and gentleness. My manicure made that tension obvious: The robot was so careful with my cuticles that it barely touched them at all.

Still, 10Beauty is betting that rapid improvements in software, sensors, and robotics will soon close that gap. If my slightly imperfect robot manicure is any indication, the future of beauty isn’t flawless yet—but it’s already here, humming quietly inside a little white box at Ulta.