L’Oréal, the world's largest beauty brand, continues to invest in technology and artificial intelligence to enhance its operations, products, and customer experience. From its technology incubator that focuses on how to best use technology to support the beauty industry to its innovative products such as an AI-powered skin diagnostic, L’Oréal uses artificial intelligence to its advantage.

1. The Amazing Ways That
L’Oréal Uses AI To Drive
Business Performance

2. © 2019 Bernard Marr, Bernard Marr & Co. All rights reserved
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IntroductionIntroduction
You likely know Paris-based L'Oréal as a global cosmetics and beauty care
company (the largest in the world), but you might not be aware of the
company's commitment to research, innovation, and technology. In fact, since
2012, L’Oréal operates its own technology incubator, a group that operates like
a start-up but focused on where beauty and technology meet. Here’s an
overview of the company’s incubator and some other ways they are using
artificial intelligence such as with its AI-powered digital skin diagnostic.
The Amazing Ways That L’Oréal Uses Artificial
Intelligence To Drive Business Performance

3. © 2019 Bernard Marr, Bernard Marr & Co. All rights reserved
L’Oréal’s Technology Incubator
L’Oréal’s first incubator lab was located in New Jersey, but it now also operates
additional labs in San Francisco, Paris, and Tokyo that are focused on a small
number of products—a mix of apps and wearables and objects to help
cosmetics be connected and customized to meet the specific needs of each
customer. The incubator partners with entrepreneurs and academia to develop
the latest and greatest products by using technology.

4. © 2019 Bernard Marr, Bernard Marr & Co. All rights reserved
Makeup Genius
In 2015, the incubator launched the Makeup Genius, a mobile app that allows
customers to see hair colour and makeup on their own face before they buy
with the help of augmented reality. All customers need to do is upload an image
of themselves or use their computer’s camera to try on cosmetics or different
hair colour. A live before and after comparison is available through the apps'
sliding feature.

5. © 2019 Bernard Marr, Bernard Marr & Co. All rights reserved
Smart Hairbrush
Another product the incubator created through a partnership with smart
technology maker Withings and Kérastase (L’Oréal’s luxury hair-care brand) is
aimed at responding to those who want to reduce their bad-hair days. The
brush uses a conductivity sensor, accelerometer, gyroscope, microphone and
Bluetooth and Wi-Fi connections to gather technical insights, upload them to an
algorithm that will be able to use the information to provide personalized
product recommendations about the best way to care for the user’s hair.

6. © 2019 Bernard Marr, Bernard Marr & Co. All rights reserved
Technology in L’Oréal’s Production Facilities
Along with sensors, cameras, and lasers, IBM's Watson IoT platform helps
L’Oréal provide production facilities that are ready for the challenges and
opportunities presented by Industry 4.0. Customers are demanding—they want
the right formulations to address their specific concerns and accommodate
personal preferences. Technology helps L’Oréal production facilities respond to
these demands by being more responsive and agile.

7. © 2019 Bernard Marr, Bernard Marr & Co. All rights reserved
Facebook Messenger Bot
As evidence of L’Oréal’s belief in conversational marketing, it partnered with
Automat Technologies to launch a Facebook Messenger Bot to enable more
personalized conversations with customers (that will ultimately drive sales).
Artificial intelligence powers this bot, and by communicating with its customers
in a conversational way, individuals will be more likely to open up about their
personal preferences. Lubomira Rochet, the company’s chief digital officer, told
Marketing Week that “I believe AI is as big a revolution as the internet itself.”

8. © 2019 Bernard Marr, Bernard Marr & Co. All rights reserved
Streamline Recruiting and Hiring
Another way the cosmetics giant uses artificial intelligence is in recruiting and
the hiring process. For about 15,000 openings a year, L’Oréal must process
nearly a million applications and now uses AI in a variety of ways to free up their
human employee’s time. So, Mya is a chatbot that saves significant time in the
early stages of the recruiting process by handling questions from candidates
and can check off important details such as availability and visa status. Then
candidates encounter Seedlink, AI software that assesses their responses to
open-ended interview questions. This tool has found candidates that might have
been overlooked when just reviewing resumes. In one instance, the company’s
recruiters believe they saved 200 hours of time to hire 80 interns out of a pool
of 12,000 candidates.

9. © 2019 Bernard Marr, Bernard Marr & Co. All rights reserved
AI-Powered Skin Diagnostic
After acquiring ModiFace, an AI/AR company that offers try-on simulations of
beauty products with live video, L’Oréal had a new technology tool to offer
customers—a skin diagnostic tool. Of the acquisition, Rochet said in a
statement, “With the acquisition of ModiFace, we have started a second phase
of L’Oréal’s digital transformation, focused on reinventing the beauty experience
through technologies such as voice, AR and AI.”
Using deep learning, the tool uses ModiFace’s AR capabilities with L’Oréal's
photo database, skin aging expertise, and Skin Aging Atlases to provide women
with a personalized product routine after they upload a selfie to the company’s
website. After launching in Canada as Vichy SkinConsultAI at the beginning of
2019, it should be available worldwide later in the year.

10. © 2019 Bernard Marr, Bernard Marr & Co. All rights reserved
AI-Powered Skin Diagnostic
It’s expected that L’Oréal will continue to leverage artificial intelligence and
technology to its competitive advantage and hopes to remain on the cutting-
edge of product personalization and how best to use technology to enhance the
beauty industry.

11. © 2017 Bernard Marr , Bernard Marr & Co. All rights reserved
© 2018 Bernard Marr, Bernard Marr & Co. All rights reserved
Bernard Marr is an internationally best-selling author, popular keynote speaker, futurist, and a
strategic business & technology advisor to governments and companies. He helps
organisations improve their business performance, use data more intelligently, and
understand the implications of new technologies such as artificial intelligence, big data,
blockchains, and the Internet of Things.
LinkedIn has ranked Bernard as one of the world’s top 5 business influencers. He is a frequent
contributor to the World Economic Forum and writes a regular column for Forbes. Every day
Bernard actively engages his 1.5 million social media followers and shares content that
reaches millions of readers.
Visit The
Website
© 2017 Bernard Marr , Bernard Marr & Co. All rights reserved
© 2019 Bernard Marr, Bernard Marr & Co. All rights reserved
Bernard Marr is an internationally best-selling author, popular keynote speaker, futurist, and a
strategic business & technology advisor to governments and companies. He helps
organisations improve their business performance, use data more intelligently, and
understand the implications of new technologies such as artificial intelligence, big data,
blockchains, and the Internet of Things.
LinkedIn has ranked Bernard as one of the world’s top 5 business influencers. He is a frequent
contributor to the World Economic Forum and writes a regular column for Forbes. Every day
Bernard actively engages his 1.5 million social media followers and shares content that
reaches millions of readers.
Visit The
Website

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