Meet the AI assistant behind L’Oréal's digital makeup counter
When you visit a makeup counter in a mall, it doesn't matter if you don't know the difference between lip gloss and lip oil. A helpful sales assistant will put together the perfect combination of products for you within minutes – and wrap it beautifully, too.
However, had you visited the cosmetics brand's website instead, you may have spent hours scrolling through pages of product listings and feeling lost as you'd have no idea what makeup products are in vogue at the moment or which ones can be used together.
In fact, roughly 70% of online shoppers abandon their digital shopping carts before they complete their purchase, leading to billions in lost sales.
The good news is that generative AI (GenAI), based on large language models (LLMs), is addressing this problem swiftly and efficiently, creating a fusion of technology and personalized customer service that is transforming industries.
A prime example is the collaboration between NTT DATA and L’Oréal, involving the creation of an AI-driven sales assistant that is redefining the online shopping experience.
Revolutionizing the cosmetics industry with AI
L’Oréal, the leading international cosmetics brand, has always been at the forefront of engaging with consumers and making luxury products available to everyone.
To grow their digital brand awareness and customer engagement, they needed a solution that would improve customer interactions and gather valuable first-party customer data.
L’Oréal had already created a bot that could answer basic queries while customers were shopping online. We used our Syntphony Conversational AI platform – based on the latest GenAI technology in the form of ChatGPT-4 – to create what we call "conversational AI".
With our expertise in GenAI, we developed a virtual online assistant, Lore, that interacts conversationally with a wide range of customers through L’Oréal's popular WhatsApp and Instagram platforms and provides hyperpersonalized recommendations.
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Your product needs sorted – in seconds
For instance, a customer can message, "Hi, I have an event tomorrow night and need advice on makeup products that will match my formal, deep purple dress." Lore will respond with L’Oréal product suggestions tailored to their needs, making the shopping experience far more enjoyable and significantly reducing the customer's decision-making time.
The impact? A dramatic decrease in the time it takes for consumers to fill their shopping carts –down from an average of six minutes to add five products to the cart to just 37 seconds. This efficiency has doubled L’Oréal's conversion rates, proving that when consumers receive competent assistance online, much like they do in physical stores, they are more likely to make purchases. And, because those purchases are tailored to their needs, there's less likelihood of waste and overconsumption – which in turn contributes to the company's sustainability goals.
Lore also gathers a large amount of data during its interactions with customers. This is fed back into the model to help it understand consumers better, generate more closely tailored actions and provide better answers.
Using GenAI for any customer
The success of Lore at L’Oréal showcases the potential of GenAI across industries. NTT DATA can replicate this experience for any other client, in contact centers, marketing campaigns, customer self-service and more.
Use cases include:
- - Retail: As L’Oréal has done, retailers can use AI to offer personalized shopping advice. For instance, an AI assistant in an online electronics store can provide recommendations based on a customer's past purchases and preferences, effectively upselling by suggesting complementary products.
- - Healthcare: GenAI can power virtual health assistants to provide personalized advice, remind people to take their medication, track health metrics and even offer preliminary diagnoses based on symptoms described by patients.
- - Financial services: Banks and financial institutions can use GenAI to offer personalized financial advice. An AI-driven financial advisor can analyze a customer's spending habits, investment history and financial goals to offer personalized advice on saving, investing and budgeting.
- - Customer support: GenAI can provide instant, context-aware responses to customer inquiries. This can cut wait times and free up human agents to handle more complex queries.
- - Education: In education, a GenAI assistant can create personalized learning experiences based on a student's progress, learning style and goals.
Embracing the future
GenAI and the LLMs enabling these tools are evolving rapidly, and NTT DATA is at the forefront of keeping our solutions adaptable and future-proof. Our Syntphony platform is LLM-neutral, so the GenAI technology can be swapped out quickly and efficiently without having a major impact on the application – in the case of L’Oréal, that would be Lore, the digital assistant.
We have also found ways of ensuring customer data privacy with Azure OpenAI Services, so the potential benefits of using GenAI to engage customers and increase sales in a responsible, sustainable way is immense.
L’Oréal's journey with NTT DATA is just the beginning. As more industries begin to realize the potential of this technology, we expect a broader adoption of AI-driven solutions, creating more personalized and engaging experiences for consumers across the world.
WHAT TO DO NEXT
Learn more about NTT DATA's Syntphony Conversational AI to see how conversational AI and smart virtual assistants can change your organization for the better.
Santiago Santa María
Product Director, Conversational AI power by GenAI, NTT DATA Europe & LATAM
Pedro Javier Lopez
Partner, Head of Products, CX & Design Americas, NTT DATA Europe & LATAM