Technology is undoubtedly one of the buzzwords in today’s beauty industry, and within the tech space, few terms appear as frequently as artificial intelligence (AI).
As beauty converges with AI, how is L’Oréal— the world’s largest beauty group and a pioneer in industry innovation—evolving?
On April 27, an event titled the “L’Oréal China 2025/2026 Annual Strategic Development Communication Conference” was held at the Peninsula Hotel in Shanghai. That same morning, the launch sharing session of the “BIG BANG Beauty Tech Co-Creation Program” also took place.
CHAILEEDO learned that three themed forums were set up for the first time at the event, where L’Oréal China’s executive team engaged in discussions with experts, scholars, and KOL on topics such as AI and beauty, as well as technology and consumption. Yuri, the world’s first successfully launched AI virtual idol, also joined a roundtable discussion, exploring the boundaries of beauty in the AI era alongside other guests. Meanwhile, winning companies from the BIG BANG program presented practical, AI-powered industry solutions, demonstrating how technological innovation is truly making its way into production lines and into the hands of consumers.
Through these discussions and showcases, L’Oréal China’s determination and expanding footprint in AI have become increasingly clear.
AI is Comprehensively Reshaping L’Oréal’s Value Chain
In 2018, L’Oréal first clearly articulated its strategy to transform into a “beauty tech company.” Over the past eight years, the group has continuously strengthened its technology credentials through a series of investments in fields such as biotechnology and longevity science. Now, as the AI era unfolds, L’Oréal is fully embracing this new wave of transformation.
Of course, the intersection of AI and the beauty industry did not emerge overnight. Over the past five years, global beauty groups have conducted extensive explorations in AI, with applications such as virtual try-on and intelligent customer service already being implemented in consumer-facing scenarios.
Today, however, the impact of AI on the industry goes far beyond these initial applications. For L’Oréal, AI has penetrated from the surface to the core, embedding itself into every stage—from R&D to the supply chain, from organizational efficiency to consumer experience—driving a far more fundamental transformation.
AI is reshaping the underlying logic of formulation innovation, boosting R&D efficiency by up to 100 times. In March this year, L’Oréal announced an expanded partnership with NVIDIA in the field of artificial intelligence. By integrating NVIDIA’s ALCHEMI machine learning framework into its R&D and innovation system, L’Oréal can simulate ingredient efficacy and product textures in a virtual environment, enabling researchers to test thousands of combinations simultaneously and achieve up to a 100-fold increase in efficiency compared to traditional methods.
In China, leveraging the BIG BANG Beauty Tech Incubator program, L’Oréal China has established in-depth AI collaborations with multiple winning companies, gradually building an open innovation ecosystem.
One representative example is Deep Principle, a company that employs a dual-track R&D process combining AI prediction with experimental validation. By closely linking AI-generated candidate formulations with laboratory testing, it aims to address the high resource consumption and low screening efficiency of traditional experimental methods, and has already begun collaborative trials with L’Oréal.
Building on this, Deep Principle and another BIG BANG-winning company, Shanhai Innovation, jointly launched the world’s first AI-driven supramolecular material synthesis matrix, “Synthrix™.” The platform will focus on high-value areas such as anti-aging and skin brightening, advancing deeper collaboration powered by AI in beauty R&D innovation.
AI is not confined to the laboratory—it is also creating value in manufacturing and supply chains. For example, L’Oréal China has initiated a proof-of-concept (POC) collaboration with XENSE ROBOTICS, applying a flexible sorting solution based on tactile sensing technology to address bottlenecks in automated sample picking within traditional e-commerce logistics.
At a broader supply chain level, Gregory Arnal, Deputy Group Purchasing Director & Corporate Packaging Sourcing Director, L’Oréal, revealed during a group interview that the company is using AI algorithms to optimize inventory management. “In China, we have the most complex supply chain, as we not only supply retailers but also operate direct-to-consumer logistics,” he noted.
According to him, the team is currently testing an AI-driven system aimed at maintaining the lowest possible safety stock across the entire network while enhancing consumer service experience. The project is expected to go live in 2027.
On the organizational empowerment, Vincent Boinay, President L’Oréal North Asia and China CEO, highlighted “L’Oréal GPT”—an internal AI tool exclusively available to employees. Staff can input any question and quickly receive answers. Based on data shared on-site, more than 50% of L’Oréal employees are already using the tool, with cumulative AI-related training hours exceeding 15,000.
On the consumer experience and marketing, AI-driven innovation has also become embedded in daily operations. L’Oréal’s generative AI-powered personal beauty assistant, Beauty Genius, combines augmented reality and computer vision technologies to provide users with personalized skincare routines and product recommendations. In content production, L’Oréal launched the CREAITECH generative AI beauty content lab in 2024. According to public information, the platform is capable of producing up to 50,000 images and more than 500 videos per month, compressing the timeline from concept to launch from several weeks to just a few days.
All of this makes it clear that for L’Oréal, AI has long gone beyond conceptual evangelism or future vision—it is now a deeply embedded driver of transformation.
The Irreplicability of R&D Depth and Brand Cultural Equity
For L’Oréal, if AI serves as its “accelerator and amplifier,” then the depth of its R&D and the richness of its brand culture constitute its true “moat.”
Ma Xiaoyu, Deputy CEO of L’Oréal China and General Manager of the Luxe Division, აღნიშნა during a presentation of the brand portfolio that L’Oréal China’s 33 brands feature “complementary identities that compete in brilliance,” spanning from mass to premium, from health-focused to luxury, comprehensively accompanying increasingly sophisticated Chinese consumers. She specifically highlighted initiatives such as Lancôme’s 90th anniversary celebrations and L’Oréal Paris’s revival of its iconic Spring Festival Gala moments, noting: “Every time we carry out such campaigns, all of us at L’Oréal feel a deep sense of pride. What we do is not just business—our mission is to pass on beauty.”
Behind these brands lies L’Oréal’s deeply rooted global R&D system. The group employs more than 4,000 scientists worldwide; in 2025 alone, it filed 725 patents, developed 3,400 new formulations, and invested over €1.5 billion in R&D. Such profound scientific capabilities are difficult to replicate.
Moreover, L’Oréal has always treated investment as a long-term endeavor. L’Oréal China is building a multi-dimensional investment framework—spanning technology, R&D, operations, ecosystem, and a better future—to create an integrated growth flywheel.
A flagship example of investing in technology is the BIG BANG program. Launched in 2020, this beauty tech co-creation initiative has now entered its sixth year, with more than 80 commercial collaborations implemented. One of the 2022 winning companies, Shinehigh, has already applied its supramolecular technology in core products of brands such as La Roche-Posay and L’Oréal Paris. Looking ahead, L’Oréal China will further accelerate the real-world application of AI to empower the entire beauty value chain.
On the R&D front, L’Oréal China’s research center contributed over 300 new formulations and 94 patents in 2025, accounting for approximately 15% of the group’s global patents. At this event, the first outcome of its collaboration with the dermatology department of Huashan Hospital was unveiled globally: La Roche-Posay’s Supramolecular Oil Control Balancing Skincare line—another strong testament to L’Oréal China’s deep local commitment.
Beyond this, in response to an increasingly dynamic market and rapid technological change, L’Oréal is leveraging its multi-polar strengths to expand into emerging fields: exploring the new frontier of longevity science, capturing the trend toward more sophisticated haircare, and further strengthening its presence in the high-end fragrance market through a new strategic partnership with Kering Beauté.
Operational investment is reflected in the intelligent transformation of its supply chain. L’Oréal’s first global smart operations center in Suzhou extensively adopts Chinese technologies. Fabrice Megarbane revealed that another smart operations center in Nantong is currently under intensive construction. “We continue to invest for tomorrow,” he said.
In terms of ecosystem investment, the previously mentioned “Synthrix™” platform—jointly developed by Deep Principle and Shanhai Innovation—serves as a prime example of the synergistic effects within L’Oréal’s innovation ecosystem.
As the 2026 BIG BANG Beauty Tech Co-Creation Program progresses, L’Oréal China is accelerating its exploration of “AI+” application boundaries, working alongside startups and its broader innovation ecosystem to develop breakthrough solutions that span business growth, industry transformation, sensory experience, and sustainability.
In investing in a better future, L’Oréal is advancing along three dimensions: empowering women through initiatives such as “Beauty for a Better Life” and the “For Girls in Science” program; empowering youth through the BRANDSTORM competition, which has supported over 360,000 young people in enhancing employability, as well as the “Young Talents” initiative for cross-disciplinary innovation; and advancing sustainability by focusing on sustainable innovation, responsible consumption, and partnerships, including the promotion of refillable packaging—where China already leads globally within L’Oréal in refill adoption.
Through L’Oréal China’s investment landscape, a clear underlying logic emerges: rather than chasing short-term trends, it is building systems. More importantly, it shows how L’Oréal is embedding the efficiency gains of the AI era into both the fundamental core of beauty R&D and the softer dimensions of humanistic value—ultimately forging a long-term capability where technology serves beauty.
Responsible AI: L’Oréal’s Bottom Line of “Tech for Good”
There is no doubt about AI’s value in shaping industrial development, improving efficiency, and optimizing services. Yet every technology has two sides. Issues such as AI-generated fraud and the potential wave of job displacement have also sparked widespread debate.
At the themed roundtable that afternoon, a pointed question was raised: when beauty can be calculated and generated with such precision, are authenticity and originality still necessary?
Lan Zhenzhen, President of Public Affairs for North Asia and China at L’Oréal, responded: “If everyone uses AI to pursue the same kind of ‘perfection,’ the market will only spiral into homogenized competition. Only beauty that stems from genuine needs and dares to break beyond algorithmic constraints can truly contribute to high-quality social development.”
For L’Oréal, this commitment to authenticity and originality is deeply embedded in its DNA. Lan illustrated this with a concrete pledge: L’Oréal’s global CEO has explicitly stated that the company will never use AI-generated faces to test product efficacy. “We will always use real human skin and real human hair to test product results. This is an extremely important commitment.”
Yan Jiangying, Chairwoman of China Association of Fragrance Flavour and Cosmetic Industries, offered three perspectives: AI can empower beauty, but it is not the arbiter of beauty; AI cannot design the soul behind it—your smile, the stories and warmth within your wrinkles; and technology must be used for good.
“AI can do good if guided by human goodwill; if human morality declines, AI may also be used for harm,” she noted, quoting Yin Ye, CEO of BGI Group, from The Beauty of Life.
So what, ultimately, makes humans irreplaceable?
At the “AI FOR BEAUTY” forum, Huang Bingrong, Chief Growth Officer for North Asia and China and General Manager of L’Oréal’s BOLD (Business Open Innovation) division, explained: “The purpose of using AI is not to replace people, but to liberate them.” She pointed out that AI can significantly improve efficiency in repetitive, tedious, and low-value tasks, allowing employees to focus on higher-level work such as value judgment and creative insight.
In response to the same question, the AI virtual idol Yuri offered an unexpected answer: aesthetic judgment and value discernment, the ability to bear consequences, and the courage to reject standard answers. “AI is good at catering, but true aesthetics sometimes come from saying: I don’t want this standard answer.”
A clear consensus emerged: algorithms can model logic, but they cannot capture the subtleties of human nature or take responsibility; AI can generate content with remarkable efficiency, but it cannot create those truly heart-stirring moments. The creation and interpretation of beauty will always belong to living, breathing individuals.
In addition, centered on its core strategy of being “consumer-centric,” L’Oréal China upgraded the format of its strategic communication conference by introducing, for the first time, a dedicated “Consumers First” forum. Moderated by Ma Lan, Vice President of L’Oréal China, the panel brought together Wang Wei, former Director of the Market Economy Research Institute of the Development Research Center of the State Council; e-commerce livestreamer Li Jiaqi; and Wang Yang, President of Yingfan Technology. From perspectives spanning brand strategy, macro trends, and frontline channels, they explored the rapid evolution of new consumer demands, emerging demographics, new scenarios, and business models—and how brands can maintain strategic focus, navigate cycles, and truly embed consumer-centricity into every aspect of their operations.
Through this multi-perspective strategic dialogue—featuring three themed forums for the first time—L’Oréal China outlined a comprehensive blueprint for its AI-era strategy: technology as the foundation, humanity as the core, and the consumer at the center.
China: Always L’Oréal’s “Lighthouse” of Innovation
“We firmly believe that the future of beauty is being created in China. L’Oréal China will continue to win through the quality of its business, evolve together with consumers we truly care about, deepen transformation, and keep investing in China with a long-term, high-quality approach—powering the future with intelligence,” said Fabrice Megarbane.
This confidence is backed by performance. In the first quarter of this year, L’Oréal Group delivered a solid start, with sales reaching €12.15 billion, representing a like-for-like growth of 3.6%. Among this, the Chinese market recorded mid-to-high single-digit growth—clearly accelerating compared to last year and continuing to outpace the overall market recovery.
This positive performance is inseparable from L’Oréal’s sustained commitment to the Chinese market—and, in turn, it is reinforcing the group’s determination to invest even more deeply.
This trajectory is closely aligned with the broader context of China’s 15th Five-Year Plan. As 2026 marks its opening year, the “intelligent economy” has been elevated to an unprecedented level of strategic importance. Against this backdrop, China is not only L’Oréal’s second-largest global market, but also a “testing ground” and “accelerator” for its AI transformation.
For L’Oréal China, the market is one of “a thousand faces per consumer”—where online and offline channels intertwine, spanning from top-tier cities to lower-tier markets. This complexity not only provides fertile ground for AI to demonstrate its capabilities, but also serves as the ultimate stress test. Any AI system that can successfully operate within China’s intricate ecosystem offers profound insights for the global beauty industry.
While embracing AI has become an inevitable trend for beauty companies, the real differentiator may not be who adopts AI—but who applies it more deeply, more effectively, and more systematically, while still upholding ethical and humanistic boundaries.
This is precisely where L’Oréal’s systemic capabilities lie. It combines world-leading scientific depth with enduring brand cultural richness; it embraces the efficiency revolution brought by AI, while remaining clear-eyed about what cannot be replaced.
Such capability stems from over a century of accumulated understanding of technology, humanity, and aesthetics. This may well be L’Oréal’s most difficult-to-replicate “true craft.” And China, throughout, remains its beacon of innovation.
