The Estée Lauder Companies (ELC) and Microsoft have partnered to create a pioneering AI Innovation Lab
The lab is an expansion of ELC and Microsoft’s global strategic relationship, which began in 2017. It leverages the generative AI capabilities in Microsoft Azure’s OpenAI Service to develop solutions for ELC’s more than 20 prestige beauty brands.
According to the partners, the lab will build impactful generative AI projects across ELC’s businesses. These are designed to foster deeper consumer connections and increase speed-to-market efficiency with local relevancy.
ELC and Microsoft have successfully created an internal-facing generative AI chatbot to enhance marketing effectiveness globally. The tool uses advanced conversational AI technology to leverage ELC’s proprietary database of product data, enabling brands to launch more locally relevant campaigns.
In addition, ELC and Microsoft are applying generative AI tools in Research & Development to speed up product development, allowing its teams to respond more efficiently to emerging product and ingredient trends globally.
ELC Executive Vice President Enterprise Marketing and Chief Data Officer Jane Lauder said: “At ELC, technology is always in support of our enduring strengths of high-quality products and high-touch consumer experiences.
“With Microsoft’s generative AI tools and extensive expertise, we are able to leverage ELC’s tremendous data to create more personalised consumer experiences and faster insights to action resulting in increased speed to market and stronger local relevancy. We look forward to continuing our close and collaborative partnership with Microsoft.”
Microsoft Corporate Vice President Global Industry Solutions Shelley Bransten added: “Generative AI represents a significant opportunity for the beauty industry – creating more engaging customer experiences, getting products into the hands of consumers faster, developing new products more efficiently and sustainably and much more.
“We’re proud to collaborate with The Estée Lauder Companies to provide not only a platform for AI innovation, but also deep partnership to bring these new innovations to life.”
As part of this long-term relationship, ELC is leveraging Azure AI as the platform for its Voice-Enabled Makeup Assistant (VMA), a mobile app launched in early 2023 to help visually impaired users apply makeup. The app is available on iOS and Android in the USA, UK and Ireland, and will be rolled out to additional markets and languages in the coming months. ✈
