How Estée Lauder is using generative AI to enhance its marketing and R&D capabilities

The Estée Lauder Companies has teamed up with Microsoft on the creation of a new AI Innovation Lab in an effort to encourage closer connections with consumers, drive greater speed to market, and further enhance local relevancy.

The partnership, which will develop solutions that further empower Estée Lauder's portfolio of more than 20 prestige beauty brands, aims to position both companies as "leaders at the forefront of reimagining the beauty industry with generative AI".

As part of this, the companies have developed an internal-facing generative AI chatbot to help enhance marketing effectiveness globally, allowing for faster response and execution to social trends and consumer demands across Estée Lauder's brands.

To achieve this, the tool utilises advanced conversational AI technology to navigate and leverage Estée Lauder's database of product and claim data, allowing brands to "more rapidly launch locally relevant campaigns".

The partnership also hopes to enable fast and more effective product innovation by applying generative AI tools in research and development, allowing scientists and product development specialists to respond to emerging product and ingredient trends more rapidly.

Jane Lauder, EVP, Enterprise Marketing and Chief Data Officer, the Estée Lauder Companies, 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."

The introduction of the AI Innovation Lab represents a deepening of the strategic relationship between Estée Lauder and Microsoft, which began in 2017.

Shelley Bransten, Corporate Vice President, Global Industry Solutions at Microsoft, said: "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 Estée Lauder to provide not only a platform for AI innovation, but also deep partnership to bring these new innovations to life."