Recently, OpenAI, the California-based artificial intelligence leader, has announced a partnership with Estée Lauder Companies (ELC) to revolutionize beauty product development and marketing. As part of this collaboration, ELC has developed 240 new generative pre-trained transformers (GPTs) to enhance its research and development capabilities across its portfolio of over 20 brands, including Clinique and Aveda.
ELC employees are leveraging ChatGPT Enterprise, OpenAI’s enterprise-grade solution, to access and analyze the company’s vast archive of clinical trials, consumer surveys, and other proprietary documents. Unlike the consumer-facing version of ChatGPT, the enterprise model empowers businesses to control and secure their data, ensuring it is not used to train OpenAI’s models. “We wanted an enterprise version of ChatGPT that would enable us to protect our most valuable asset, which is 75 plus years of data,” explained Jane Lauder, ELC’s Chief Data Officer and Executive Vice President of Enterprise Marketing.
ELC’s journey with generative AI began in 2022 when over 1,000 employees submitted ideas on how the technology could transform operations. Their feedback informed the creation of tools like Fragrance Insights GPT, which generates trend reports from customer data, and Clinical Trials GPT, which synthesizes the company’s studies into actionable claims. This AI-driven approach extends to customer service, where ELC began integrating generative AI in late 2023.
The partnership aligns with ELC’s broader AI strategy, spearheaded by an “AI Innovation” lab established in collaboration with Microsoft, an investor in OpenAI. While OpenAI has not disclosed other beauty or fashion brands it works with, a company spokesperson noted that 92 percent of Fortune 500 companies utilize OpenAI products.
