Fresha goes conversational with native Claude and ChatGPT integration for beauty bookings

Fresha, the AI-powered booking platform for beauty and wellness, has become the first beauty and wellness marketplace to launch native integrations with both ChatGPT and Claude, allowing users to make highly specific, conversational requests, when looking for beauty and wellness services. 

The technology connects the two major AI assistants to live information from the Fresha marketplace, which already centralizes booking and services information for 140,000 partner businesses across more than 120 countries. 

With the new AI integration, users can now make highly specific, conversational requests, rather than searching for the services they need then adding filters for location, price, customer reviews, or other factors.

Once a consumer finds the appointment they want, they are directed to Fresha to confirm the booking and securely complete payment.

Fresha is the latest brand to take things conversational. In recent months, AddSearch and ASOS have both doubled down on conversational experiences in response to the same consumer behavior trend.

Fresha's CEO, William Zeqiri, said: "Artificial intelligence is fundamentally changing how people discover businesses online. Consumers are increasingly turning to AI assistants to help them make everyday decisions, and booking beauty and wellness appointments is a natural extension of that behavior. By becoming the first beauty and wellness marketplace to integrate natively with ChatGPT and Claude, we're making it easier than ever for clients to discover and book appointments while creating an entirely new acquisition channel for our partners.

"It's another step towards making self-care more accessible through the technology people already use every day," he continues.

Don't miss any news, updates or insider tips from CX Network by getting them delivered to your inbox. Sign up to our newsletter and join our community of experts. 

Learn More

How has AI search changed discovery in beauty and wellness?

In the beauty and wellness industry, local independent salons play a huge role and discovery, traditionally, was based on proximity to the salon or word of mouth. 

Google reviews turned this on its head, with a growing number of consumers willing to either travel for a five-star experience, or use internet search to find services while away from home. 

AI search has rewritten the rules all over again and as an established marketplace that already has the relevant service provider data, Fresha just positioned itself to capitalize on this latest shift in consumer behavior.

Fresha says its integration is particularly useful when consumers "care more about what is available right now than which specific business they visit".

For example, someone needing a manicure before an event, a haircut during their lunch break, or a post-flight massage in a new city, can give the AI assistant several requirements at once.

Rather than individually checking businesses to see whether they meet each requirement, AI can use Fresha's live marketplace information to find options matching the request.

It means a search that might traditionally involve several steps could increasingly begin – and end – with a single sentence: "Find me somewhere nearby with a massage available after work for less than $80."

The integration also creates a new discovery route for more than 140,000 businesses and 450,000 professionals that use Fresha globally, including salons, barbershops, spas, medspas and wellness businesses.

Is it safe? How Fresha protects customer data (and trust)

It may be an innovative solution for consumers and a stroke of genius for Fresha, but customer trust must still be preserved. 

As former Visa executive Michael Nevski recently told CX Network, when it comes to building trust in new technology, "convenience does not automatically produce consent". 

"Consumers already grasp the appeal, efficiency, personalization, less effort, potential savings. What they are waiting for is not better technology. They are waiting for a trustworthy system around the technology," he continued. 

Nevski will talk about this in detail during Mastering CX: AI Agents, taking place online, October 13-14. 

No doubt seeing the same trend, Fresha has designed the integration so that discovery through AI remains separate from the transaction itself, meaning personal information, account credentials and payment details are not exposed.

The integrations are powered by Fresha's public Model Context Protocol (MCP) server, which provides Claude and ChatGPT with real-time access to relevant appointment information from the Fresha marketplace.

When someone decides to book, they are directed to Fresha, where their details are confirmed and payment is completed through Fresha's existing checkout experience.

Marcin Dąbrowski, Fresha's deputy chief product officer said: "This launch is about much more than connecting Fresha to AI assistants. We've built a secure, scalable foundation using open standards that allows conversational AI to interact with live marketplace availability while keeping booking, payments and personal information within Fresha's trusted platform.

"It's the first stage of a much broader vision that will see AI assistants become increasingly capable of helping clients manage every aspect of their beauty and wellness journey."

What agentic commerce means for the beauty industry 

Agentic commerce has rewritten the rules of discovery, and mid- to large-size organizations and brands, particularly those that operate on a national and international level, have no choice but to optimize their web presence in line with AEO and GEO requirements. 

As explained earlier in this article, however, the beauty industry largely comprises independent spas and salons. Many of these businesses have a large and loyal enough client base to make AEO and GEO redundant. 

But marketplace platforms like Fresha have to move with the times. While they have been a valuable source of new business for spas and salons in recent years, making the search experience far more convenient for consumers is the next step in their evolution. 

It also brings additional benefits. Whereas agentic commerce can become an intermediary, placing a third party between brand and customer, in the case of Fresha, journeys which begin in Claude and ChatGPT still end on its platform, meaning traffic, data and most importantly the customer relationship, remain intact. 

Quick links

• How to connect with customers in the AI age
• Building brand trust in an agentic economy
• How generative AI search is changing the customer journey