Estée Lauder to Drive Accelerated AI Adoption With Tech Ecosystem
The Estée Lauder Cos. is one year into its Beauty Reimagined restructure, which has included a profit-improvement plan, leadership shifts and digital transformations.
This is part of ongoing efforts to overhaul the company's innovation engine with faster-to-market launches and a renewed consumer-first mindset, according to CEO and president Stephane de la Faverie.
During the latest earnings conversation, the company announced it is working with Accenture to establish enterprise business services that will accelerate Estée Lauder's end-to-end deployment of AI.
De la Faverie said the partnership builds on its ecosystem of tech providers, which includes Microsoft, Google, Adobe and Shopify — a collaboration strategy that will help introduce increased speed and agility into operations while also yielding cost savings through new efficiencies.
Akhil Shrivastava, EVP and CFO, said the global initiative will look to consolidate certain service providers, expand outsourced services and standardize end-to-end processes using advanced technology.
"This enables us to unlock greater productivity and efficiency across the organization," he added during the call.
Estée Lauder's Recent History of Partnerships
Google: Helped Estée Lauder develop AI-enabled personalization through a Scent Advisor application for its Jo Malone London brand.
Shopify: Expanded the company's digital commerce network through an AI- and data-enabled platform so it can tap into data and emerging tech to improve its speed to market and build more cohesive brand experiences.
Microsoft: Helped Estée Lauder open an AI innovation lab and develop an AI agent called ConsumerIQ that gives employees access to its trove of data so they can identify trends, build marketing assets, inform research and get products to market faster.
Adobe: Worked with the company to integrate generative AI-powered tools for visual content creation into its workflows to enhance efficiency and accelerate campaign execution.
"We have advanced our work to create a robust operating ecosystem for more connected and scalable enterprise," said de la Faverie. "We have simplified our structure in support of one team with fewer layers and silos, along with clearer ownership to make it easier to get things done and done well."
