Who’s Afraid of Artificial Intelligence? Marketing Executives, That’s Who!

Napoleon once said “A good sketch is better than a long speech.” Now, I can’t draw a sketch on the topic of artificial intelligence, but I hope that my thousand words helps me make my point. 

We have the habit of hearing or reading claims that require a grain or two of salt. For years, outlandish product claims required liberal shakes of seasoning. Most recent claims insist products were conceived with, or even by, artificial intelligence. I hope that such claims are not made when, in the preparation of a cream, a chemist checked the value of the Hydrophilic-Lipophilic-Balance of a surfactant on the internet! 

What Can AI Do for You?

Far from this paradoxical example, it is a fact that AI helps the personal care industry in many ways. It brushes off dusty archive and uncovers forgotten information on the toxicity of raw materials, particularly when the toxicity refers to the joint utilization of two non-toxic ingredients, such as an essential oil and a surfactant. 

AI helps users recall the ruses used in the past to boost the efficacy of some specific ingredients. It allows laboratories to keep track of sustainability and biodegradability profiles of botanical extracts. AI helps predict the mutagenicity of new dyes and the toxicity of newly synthetized molecules. 

Artificial intelligence allows scientists to calculate the partition coefficients of different molecules. AI helps in the selection of excipients that do not hinder an active ingredient from exerting its activity. Instead, the most effective excipients help the active cross the cutaneous surface. AI may help unravel contradictory results obtained in the past. For instance, a given ingredient was found to be active in certain formulas and inactive in other formulas. 

AI Is Helpful, But Not a Solution

One can also expect that AI will be useful in monitoring chemical reactions. AI will be helpful in the scanning of images in search of patterns undetected by the human eye as well as in the control of data displayed by measuring devices. 

My friend and colleague Kelly Dobos recently noted on her Linkedin account that “AI often grabs headlines for its role in invention and creativity but I think some of its most impactful applications can transform the way we get work done in the lab. AI doesn’t always have to invent something new or build cosmetic formulas to be valuable. Sometimes, its greatest strength is helping us see what’s already there, more clearly and more quickly.”

All true. But Artificial Intelligence will not be a remedy for the inestimable damage caused by the perfunctory behavior of natural stupidity.

AI and Creativity

The organoleptic properties of a topical product play a paramount role in consumer choice. Years ago, while I was working in a major cosmetic corporation, an outside scientist was invited to give a talk on the preparation of new formulas. He designed a computer program that was fed the quantitative list of ingredients and the physical-chemical properties of each formula. His computer program generated new formulas with the desired set of chemical-physical properties, appropriate for the market for which they were destined. In my opinion, the very existence of that program was a fantastic stimulus to analyze the formulas of greatest success in the different brands of the corporation. We could analyze from the point of view of studying the physical-chemical properties of our products and from the point of view of market preferences in every regional market.

To my great surprise, I learned that neither the mighty Amazons in marketing nor the omniscient demigods in research and development had ever asked how to quantitate the “watery” feeling that is so appreciated in the Land of the Rising Sun yet so abhorred in the Anglo-Saxon New World. 

East Is East…

So it was my turn, despite my more exotic expertise in DNA repair, to undertake a few measurements. For the set of successful products I tested there was a strong inverse correlation between the rate of evaporation of the water after topical application, and the longitude of the market where they are successful: very high in North America, intermediate in Central Europe and very low in Japan. 

Next it came time to explore the physical-chemical parameters of the most successful creams. It turned out that the viscosities, contact angles and surface tensions were the same for all the products tested, irrespective of the brand and of the date of conception of the original formula! As a result of these results, our database was useless. The computer program couldn’t make correlations due to the absence of formulas displaying a variety physical-chemical and organoleptic properties. 

One wonders whether those organoleptic properties were the ones preferred by the global market. This is quite unlikely because we know at least, that the “watery” sensation is differently appreciated in different markets. And the greasy feeling offered by silicones is not welcome by male consumers. One could also ponder the idea that in preparing formulas with only those properties, did we create a self-fulfilling prophecy?

More seriously, top management should have questioned polling results. In selecting the winners from among all the prototypes presented by the formulation laboratories, did the marketing department merely follow the aesthetic guideline established by the department? 

Alas, not even Artificial Intelligence can compensate for Artificial Parameters.

Paolo Giacomoni, PhD
Insight Analysis Consulting
paologiac@gmail.com
516-769-6904

Paolo Giacomoni acts as an independent consultant to the skin care industry. He served as Executive Director of Research at Estée Lauder and was Head of the Department of Biology with L’Oréal. He has built a record of achievements through research on DNA damage and metabolic impairment induced by UV radiation as well as on the positive effects of vitamins and antioxidants. He has authored more than 100 peer-reviewed publications and has more than 20 patents. He is presently Head of R&D with L.RAPHAEL—The science of beauty—Geneva, Switzerland.