L'Oréal and OpenAI have announced a new partnership that will see the beauty giant use OpenAI's technology across customer experiences, product discovery, scientific research, and content creation.

The collaboration, unveiled at the VivaTech technology conference in Paris, forms part of L'Oréal's wider AI strategy and aims to accelerate the company's use of AI across both consumer-facing services and internal operations.

One of the first initiatives will allow customers to virtually try on makeup from L'Oréal brand Maybelline New York through ChatGPT. Powered by the company's ModiFace technology, the feature will allow users to test makeup looks directly within AI-powered conversations.

L'Oréal will also work with OpenAI to improve product discovery through ChatGPT in the US market, helping consumers find products from brands including Lancôme and Kérastase.

The partnership will also extend to advertising. SkinCeuticals, CeraVe and Garnier will participate in OpenAI's ChatGPT advertising pilot programme, which the companies said will provide marketing messages at key moments in the customer journey.

Beyond customer engagement, L'Oréal plans to use OpenAI's AI models to support scientific research. The company said it is using GPT-Rosalind, OpenAI's life sciences reasoning model, to analyse the skin microbiome and identify beneficial bacteria that could support the development of new skincare products.

OpenAI's technology will also be integrated into CreAItech, L'Oréal's internal generative AI platform, which creates marketing images and videos while maintaining brand consistency.

L'Oréal said it has already trained 73,000 employees in generative AI and deployed internal tools including L'OréalGPT and AI assistants designed to support staff across the organisation.

Asmita Dubey, chief digital and marketing officer at L'Oréal Groupe, said the company wanted to use AI to enhance experiences for consumers, employees and business functions:

"At L'Oréal, we believe we can be more demanding of AI to augment our beauty consumers, our métiers such as marketing and research and our employees. “Our collaboration with OpenAI structurally supports this ambition to bring new solutions within the beauty vertical."

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