Generative AI takes us to new frontiers in technology. We are at a stage where creativity and technology are closer together than ever before.
Asmita Dubey, chief digital and marketing officer at global beauty company L'Oréal Group, made a bold declaration as she reflected on how Gen AI technology is revolutionizing marketing. She suggests this is the latest step in an ongoing process.
In recent years, beauty marketing has been powered by multi-sensory experiences in the physical, digital and virtual worlds, and beauty marketing has also been powered by data used across business labels. And now, beauty marketing is powered by generative AI.
Augmented marketing is the future of marketing. What we're doing is we're exploring augmented marketing using generative AI technology across different parts of marketing and content creation. We offer beauty consumers a new generation of beauty services both offline and online.
Dubey agrees with a thesis put forward by WPP's Stephan Pretorious about the enthusiasm for generative AI among creators.
L'Oréal is a powerful creative company. Our company has very talented marketers. What I find interesting is how creativity and technology are coming closer together, and how it's as much about using your left brain and right brain to think creatively as it is to create data sets for your brand. How we need a new generation of qualified marketers. What should the brand value and brand proposal be? We feel this opens up huge opportunities in training and developing a new generation of marketers.
She adds:
Throughout this creative journey, we are undoubtedly combining humans and machines to create beauty that powers the world with generative AI. At L'Oréal Group, technology is fueling creativity like never before. We are ready to embrace creative expansion on the one hand and content automation on the other. We are a leading beauty technology company. We believe that beauty technology brings beauty to each of us.
person in charge
Given generative AI's ability to power deepfakes, L'Oréal takes its responsibility seriously and has established a generative AI task force to set guidelines and define do's and don'ts, Dubey said. says.
L'Oréal Group has decided not to use AI-generated face, skin, body, and hair to enhance its beauty products when expressing beauty externally. Yes, we use AI-generated facial hair, skin, and bodies when it comes to inspiration, and new beauty codes when it comes to inspiring the imagination and internal storyboards. But we do not use it to enhance the external expression of beauty.
A lot of thought went into this and at the highest level added:
What we said is that beauty is something we use on ourselves, something that enhances us as humans, as men, as women. That's why we, along with his CEO, made the decision not to use AI-generated lifelike faces, hair, skin, and bodies to enhance the benefits of our products.
You wouldn't put up an AI image of a man or woman and say, “Your skin looks so much better.” That means you're reinforcing the benefits of the product against something that's not real, but we want the product benefits of the product to be real and lifelike and to someone you can relate to. I would like to show that. That is the position we have taken as a leader in the beauty field.
But the company is keen to experiment with the possibilities of artificial intelligence, she explains, and has created a division called CreAItech as a safe space to do so.
Over the past six months, we have been working with a number of partners. We've worked with Nvidia, WPP Open, and several large language models to create over 800 beautiful images. These images were created through dozens of workshops with our brands. We use around 20 different generations of AI technology and are researching and learning from all of them. There are advantages and disadvantages. At the same time, what it requires is a strong creative direction. It takes imagination and prompts with very strong brand cues to become relevant in using images to enhance your marketing.
shared vision
This expanded creativity journey began in April 2023, with an internal Generation AI Summit held with the support of technical and creative third parties, she recalls. Partnerships with WPP, her NVIDIA, and others were formed and CreAItech was founded. Testing can then begin and learnings collected, she says Dubey. Building on a shared vision is key.
Building on our shared vision means a custom brand model. I think we're taking things like three different buckets of insight and learning. The first is the readiness of the technology, the second is the modularity of the technology, and the third is the value of the data. Regarding technical preparation, [have] Those who have experienced the uneven readiness of technology, not only in terms of output, but also in terms of input capabilities, have found that technology is not always ready, as new capabilities continue to emerge. I have experienced it.
From a technology modularity perspective, if you have a generational AI technology stack that is diverse and modular, you want to keep it modular because there's so much innovation happening in this space. It could be useful for large companies like us. Also in terms of the value of data. You need to effectively manage your branded data set of training data. The more effectively you manage your brand dataset, the more you can ensure the quality of your output. You can also feel more secure in terms of compliance.
Almost 12 months after starting the initiative, Dubey says L'Oréal is still in a “test and learn” phase, but is seeing results.
Right now, we're in a controlled experimentation phase where we're saving time and saving almost 200% to 300% in product image generation time. And you can think of time as money.
However, we need to think about our group-wide service model and scalable deployment model over the next six months.
We are trying to evaluate efficiency. Can you reduce or save time and resources? Effectiveness? Are we reducing time to market? Are production volumes increasing? Are overall production performance and quality improving? Are we also evaluating whether we are creating value? Masu. Is there an increase in consumer engagement, increased satisfaction, or overall ROI conversion? At the same time, we are asking ourselves many questions about intellectual property rights. We ask ourselves what challenges lie ahead when we need to scale our technology.
Scalability is especially important.
The CreAItech lab has generated over 800 images in the past six months. Of course, we have several product detail pages for e-commerce in our countries and regions in collaboration with partners. So there's going to be thousands of images out there, and it's still in the thousands today, but if you look at our assets, we're producing a ton of content. There are hundreds of thousands of assets each year. We need to think about what the model for mass adoption is and that that mass adoption model requires branded data sets, technology modularity, and technology architecture.
The company is also starting to think [AI] For research and innovation, she adds:
AI generally helps in formulating understanding different hair types. You can understand it much faster. So there are different use cases. One use case is simply understanding different hair types and different skin types. While it would take some time for a human or human scientist to do this, AI can do it much faster and can help with formulation.
But where Gen AI is having the most visible impact is on the creative side. Mr. Dubey argues:
Technology is fueling creativity, and technology is fueling creativity among copywriters. Inspiring the creativity of 3D artists. This is inspiring the creativity of all our marketers, and therefore we are shaping the future of beauty.
