IBM and L’Oréal have collaborated to leverage IBM’s generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) technology and expertise to uncover new insights in cosmetic formulation data, facilitating L’Oréal’s use of sustainable raw materials, for energy and material waste reductions.

The unique effort will develop a custom AI foundation model with the goal to significantly increase the ability of L’Oréal research & innovation teams to reach “extra” performance and consumer satisfaction in all cosmetic categories and regions throughout the world. The formulation foundation model is believed to be a first-of-its-kind in the industry, redefining AI innovation at the intersection of beauty, chemistry and technology.

“This collaboration is a truly impactful application of generative AI, leveraging the power of technology and expertise for the good of the planet”, said Alessandro Curioni, IBM Fellow, vice president Europe and Africa and Director IBM Research Zurich. “At IBM, we believe in the power of purpose-built, customized AI to help transform businesses. Using IBM’s latest AI technology, L’Oréal will be able to derive meaningful insights from their rich formula and product data to create a tailored AI model to help achieve their operational goals and continue creating high-quality and sustainable products.”

L’Oréal for a Circular Economy

The collaboration combines L’Oréal’s expertise in cosmetic science with IBM’s cutting-edge artificial intelligence technologies for scientific discoveries, to unlock a future where science and technology can inform or help prioritize solutions that are both ecologically responsible and innovative.

To preserve Earth’s natural resources, officials say it is critical to explore renewable, sustainably sourced raw materials when developing consumer products. This effort will contribute to helping L’Oréal meet its L’Oréal for the Future‘s target of sourcing most of its product formulas based on bio-sourced materials and/or the circular economy by 2030.

“As part of our Digital Transformation Program, this partnership will extend the speed and scale of our innovation and reformulation pipeline, with products always reaching higher standards of inclusivity, sustainability and personalization,” said Stéphane Ortiz, head of innovation Métiers & Product Development – L’Oréal Research & Innovation.

The creation of this AI model will use a large number of formulations and component data points to accelerate multiple tasks to be performed by L’Oréal, including the formulation of new products, reformulation of existing cosmetics and optimization for scale-up production – tools that will better equip L’Oréal’s 4,000 researchers worldwide over the next several years.

In addition, IBM Consulting will support L’Oréal in its aim to rethink and redesign the formulation discovery process. Understanding the behaviors of renewable ingredients in cosmetic formulas will help L’Oréal build out more sustainable product lines with greater inclusivity and personalization for its consumers around the world.

Foundation models are a type of AI model trained on a broad set of unlabeled data, capable of performing various tasks and applying information from one situation to another. These models have significantly advanced the field of natural language processing (NLP) technology over the past several years, and IBM is pioneering applications of foundation models beyond language, in areas such as chemistry, time series and geospatial modalities. IBM’s AI technology has the potential to augment L’Oréal’s creativity in finding new cosmetic formulations to transform the beauty industry, officials say.