Estée Lauder and Microsoft Join Forces to Transform Beauty Brands with Generative AI Solutions

Estée Lauder and Microsoft Announce AI Innovation Lab Collaboration

Beauty conglomerate Estée Lauder Companies (ELC) and Microsoft are enhancing their strategic partnership with the launch of the AI Innovation Lab. This virtual program leverages Microsoft’s Azure OpenAI service to explore generative AI applications across ELC’s portfolio of over 20 brands.

“Generative AI presents a remarkable opportunity for the beauty industry. It can enhance customer experiences, expedite product availability, and support sustainable innovation,” says Shelly Bransten, Corporate Vice President of Global Industry Solutions at Microsoft.

Key Focus Areas

One major focus area for ELC and Microsoft is rapidly responding to social trends and consumer demands. They have developed an internal chatbot utilizing Azure OpenAI Services, enabling teams to efficiently access ELC’s extensive product database and claim data. This innovation allows ELC brands to execute local marketing campaigns more swiftly, as teams can easily retrieve and replicate successful strategies from other regions.

Another focus area is accelerating product innovation. ELC’s research and development teams are employing generative AI to quickly identify emerging product and ingredient trends. Instead of spending time on literature reviews, scientists can run queries within Microsoft’s software to pinpoint promising solutions for market development.

ELC emphasizes that the AI Innovation Lab aims to harness AI tools for a deeper connection with consumers, facilitating faster and more locally relevant product introductions.

Estée Lauder's AI Expertise

ELC is not new to AI technology. The company has established an internal task force to lead its AI transformation, ensuring ethical and responsible AI governance. In 2023, ELC hosted an Ideathon where employees proposed AI-driven initiatives to positively impact the business and its customers. Additionally, ELC utilized Microsoft’s Azure AI to create a mobile voice-enabled makeup assistant designed to assist visually impaired users.

Microsoft is not ELC’s sole tech partner in the realm of generative AI. Last summer, ELC collaborated with Google Cloud to leverage its generative AI capabilities for real-time consumer sentiment monitoring. This partnership also focuses on developing business applications on Google’s Vertex AI platform, utilizing the PaLM 2 large language model.

While both partnerships aim to enhance ELC's operational efficiency, the use cases differ significantly. The collaboration with Google Cloud targets customized marketing strategies, while the partnership with Microsoft is centered around improving internal processes and customer engagement.

A Microsoft spokesperson has not disclosed the financial details of this partnership.