Enhancing Scents with AI: The Story Behind Palmolive Aroma Essence
July 3, 2024
Perfecting the art of scent creation has always been a complex task, balancing science and experience to achieve the desired emotional impact.
Recent developments in machine learning and artificial intelligence are enabling new opportunities for fragrance creation and development, unlocking the principles of achieving the ideal fragrance for any desired mood.
Palmolive Aroma Essence Shower Gels, the first full line of products from Colgate-Palmolive to make extensive use of AI technology from one of our fragrance house partners, exemplifies how scents can be developed and experienced in new ways.
By combining predictive analytics with user insights, Colgate-Palmolive can more accurately help evoking moods—like happiness, relaxation, love and delight.
Revolutionizing Fragrance
The journey of Palmolive Aroma Essence began with a clear objective: to create deeper emotional connections and mood enhancements for people seeking wellness and pampering as a part of their daily shower routines.
To achieve this, Palmolive partnered with a fragrance house known for its pioneering AI-driven approach to creating enticing scents. By leveraging billions of data points from consumer reactions to various stimuli (like colors, images, and smells) and brain-scanning output, the Fragrance Development and Brand teams helped to determine the ideal blend of ingredients to create the desired effect, achieving a perfect balance between machine data analysis and human craft.
To confirm the scent’s ultimate effectiveness, real people needed to weigh in, so Palmolive conducted consumer tests for each fragrance to confirm the model’s findings.
“The algorithm predicts a certain percentage of the enhancement of the specific emotion that the fragrance was created for,” said Rafael Giganti, the Senior Director of Fragrance Development at Colgate-Palmolive. “And our panel tests confirmed these predictions."
The predictions ultimately resulted in what became Palmolive Aroma Essence, which offers a range of fragrances that provide a heightened sensory experience, including:
- Ultimate Relax, which has notes of lavender and ylang-ylang
- Alluring Love, which has notes of rose and peony
- Sweet Delight, which has notes of berries and figs
- Forever Happy, which has notes of frangipani and neroli
The Journey Forward with AI
Looking ahead, Palmolive Aroma Essence aims to continue leveraging AI to refine its products. The fragrance model’s ability to find innovative fragrance combinations will grow as it continues to ingest large swaths of data.
“As we continue to refine our AI tools and gather more data, the potential for creating even more personalized and effective fragrances becomes limitless, not just for Palmolive but for our entire brand portfolio,” Giganti said.
Colgate-Palmolive's focus on AI extends beyond fragrances, as the company views it as a tool for employee upskilling. The company has implemented multi-tiered AI trainings aimed at empowering employees to responsibly leverage AI technologies. These learnings enhance employees’ capabilities, improve effectiveness, and foster job enrichment, all while supporting AI literacy consistent with legal and regulatory requirements.
Looking ahead, Colgate-Palmolive is leveraging AI to transform how we innovate, operate and connect with consumers while prioritizing ethical and responsible AI practices. “We’re focused on the new ways that AI can advance our purpose of reimagining a healthier future for all people, their pets and our planet,” said Kli Pappas, Global Head of AI and Senior Director of Predictive Analytics at Colgate-Palmolive.
Palmolive Aroma Essence is now available for purchase in Europe.
