Key learnings from the keynote by Jérôme Bruhat, CEO of Robertet, at the Adopt AI Summit by Artefact - June 5, 2024

About Jérôme Bruhat: With nearly thirty years of experience at L’Oréal, including roles as Global Director of Maybelline and President of L’Oréal Germany and Japan, Jérôme now leads the charge in data and digital transformation at Robertet, enhancing both product development and sustainability.
Robertet, a family-owned company since 1850, specialising and a world leader in natural fragrances and flavours, collaborated with Artefact to explore how AI can enhance their creative processes, while keeping the traditionally human-centric nature of their industry.

A quest of passion and efficiency through AI

Creating fragrances and flavours involves using around 10-15 out of 10,000 available ingredients. Robertet uses AI to manage this complexity and enhance the formulation process. AI assists Robertet’s creators by proposing formula suggestions that are data-driven, based on market data, consumer profiles, and past creations. This helps creators by providing multiple starting points for new creations, and giving them more options, ideas that stimulate their creativity.

AI as a creator personal assistant

AI helps and also acts as a heritage database, recalling past formulas and facilitating quicker and more relevant solutions. Robertet’s philosophy is that AI serves as an assistant to the creators, enhancing their emotional intelligence and creative capabilities while preserving the human touch in their craft and ensuring future innovation in natural ingredients.

“How to make AI part of the journey of our creators? It’s not something we do on behalf of them, it’s not something we do despite them, it’s something we do with them at each and every stage. AI is at the service of our creators.”
Jérôme Bruhat, CEO of Robertet

NaturIA project by Robertet & Artefact

By combining the testing phases of perfumers and flavorists with advanced generative AI algorithms, NaturIA accelerates the creative process. It translates image briefs into detailed, evocative descriptions and then into search criteria to find existing formulas or suggest new fragrance and flavour combinations. NaturIA project has led to faster time to market, better market relevance, and expanded creative boundaries.

“AI works as a fantastic heritage database. AI is a fantastic assistant because it knows better than I do, what would be the relevant formula I invented a few years ago, that works today for this particular client at this particular moment.”
Jérôme Bruhat, CEO of Robertet

Thanks to their collaboration and their respective expertise, Robertet and Artefact are shaping the future of sensory creation, combining tradition, human creativity and technological innovation to develop new experiences. At NaturIA, art and data meet to serve the creator.