IBM & L'Oréal: Harnessing Gen AI to Create Greener Cosmetics

L'Oréal continues to drive the cosmetics revolution.

At CES 2025, the company unveiled the L'Oréal Cell BioPrint, a tabletop hardware device that provides personalised skin analysis in just five minutes.

Now, its pursuing plans to develop a new custom AI model for create more sustainable cosmetics in partnership with IBM. 

The two industry leaders in technology and cosmetics will harness IBM’s generative artificial intelligence (Gen AI) technology and expertise to extract valuable insights from cosmetic formulation data.

The goal is to enhance L'Oréal’s use of sustainable raw materials, driving reductions in energy consumption and material waste.

As stated by the companies, the bespoke AI foundation model will be “engineered to significantly increase the ability of L'Oréal Research & Innovation teams to reach extra performance and consumer satisfaction in every cosmetic category and every region of the world.”

Focusing on sustainable solutions

The formulation foundation model is another ground breaking innovation for the industry, adding to the AI exploration of companies like Shiseido in the field of skincare.

This partnership brings together L'Oréal’s expertise in cosmetic science with IBM’s cutting-edge artificial intelligence technologies to drive scientific breakthroughs.

The aim is to use science and technology to inform or assist in prioritising solutions that are both environmentally responsible and innovative.

Additionally, it will support L'Oréal in achieving its "L'Oréal for the Future" goal of sourcing the majority of its product formulas from bio-sourced materials and/or the circular economy by 2030.

Stéphane Ortiz, Head of Innovation Métiers & Product Development – L'Oréal Research & Innovation, adds "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 personalisation.”

"Building on years of unique Beauty science expertise and of data structuring, this major alliance with IBM is opening a new exciting era for our innovation and development process," comments Matthieu Cassier, Chief Transformation & Digital Officer, L'Oréal Research & Innovation.

Collaboration with IBM

Leaders at IBM are equally enthusiastic about the collaboration.

Guilhaume Leroy-Méline, IBM Distinguished Engineer, Business Transformation Services CTO, IBM Consulting France, says: "This alliance between highly specialised expertise in artificial intelligence and cosmetics seeks to revolutionise cosmetic formulation.

“It embodies the spirit of AI-augmented research, emphasising sustainability and diversity.”

Alessandro Curioni, IBM Fellow, Vice President Europe and Africa and Director IBM Research Zurich, adds: “This collaboration is a truly impactful application of generative AI, leveraging the power of technology and expertise for the good of the planet.

"At IBM, we believe in the power of purpose-built, customised 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."

How the AI model will work

IBM outlined that the AI model will leverage a vast array of formulations and component data to speed up various tasks for L'Oréal.

These tasks include creating new products, reformulating existing cosmetics and optimising processes for large-scale production. This will provide L'Oréal’s 4,000 researchers worldwide with enhanced tools over the coming years.

IBM Consulting also stated that it will assist L'Oréal in reimagining and reshaping the entire product formulation discovery process.

It added: “Understanding the behaviours of renewable ingredients in cosmetic formulas will help L'Oréal build out more sustainable product lines with greater inclusivity and personalisation for its consumers around the world.”

Foundation models are a type of AI model trained on a broad set of unlabelled data, capable of performing a range of tasks and applying knowledge from one situation to another.

In recent years, they have advanced the field of natural language processing (NLP) technology.

IBM is pioneering the use of foundation models beyond language, exploring applications in areas such as chemistry, time series, and geospatial modalities.

IBM believes its AI technology has the potential to enhance L'Oréal's creativity in discovering new cosmetic formulations, thereby transforming the beauty industry.

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