The Estée Lauder Companies and Microsoft have significantly expanded their collaboration by establishing an AI Innovation Lab, which promises to revolutionise the prestige beauty industry. This new venture aims to enhance consumer engagement and streamline product development by leveraging Microsoft’s Azure OpenAI Service across Estée Lauder’s extensive portfolio of over 20 luxury brands.
The AI Innovation Lab focuses on several key areas:
- Consumer Engagement: The collaboration has already yielded innovations like an internal generative AI chatbot designed to improve global marketing strategies. This tool taps into Estée Lauder’s extensive product and claims database, enabling the brands under its umbrella to swiftly adapt to market trends and consumer demands, ensuring campaigns are timely and locally relevant.
- Product Development: By employing generative AI in R&D, Estée Lauder can accelerate its response to emerging trends in ingredients and consumer preferences, thus speeding up the time it takes to bring new products to market. This is in line with their strategy to use technology not just for innovation but also to enhance the core strengths of the company in providing high-quality products and engaging consumer experiences.
- Technological Integration: The partnership is not new but an expansion of a relationship that started in 2017. It was highlighted by previous innovations such as the Voice-Enabled Makeup Assistant launched in 2023 to assist visually impaired users, which is now available in multiple regions including the US, UK, and Ireland.
“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”.
Shelley Bransten, Corporate Vice President, Global Industry Solutions, Microsoft.
This initiative represents a deeper integration of AI into Estée Lauder’s operations, underscoring the beauty industry’s shift towards more personalised and responsive consumer experiences through technology. Both companies express strong commitment to this partnership, with Microsoft providing the AI tools and cloud infrastructure necessary to transform how beauty products meet consumer needs more effectively and sustainably.