L’Oréal and OpenAI have unveiled a major collaboration that pushes artificial intelligence further into everyday beauty routines, from how people try products to how they’re developed behind the scenes.
Announced at VivaTech 2026 in Paris, the partnership marks a clear step in L’Oréal’s wider plan to make AI a core part of its consumer, creative and scientific work.
At the centre of the deal is a simple shift: making beauty more interactive and more personalised. The companies are focusing on two areas. One is consumer experience, where shopping becomes more conversational and tailored. The other is internal transformation, where AI supports everything from research labs to marketing teams.
On the consumer side, the changes are already easy to picture. Maybelline New York will introduce virtual makeup try-on inside ChatGPT, powered by L’Oréal’s ModiFace technology. Instead of scrolling through static images, users will be able to test looks in real time through chat. The goal is to make discovery quicker and more intuitive, without switching between apps or websites.
L’Oréal is also working with OpenAI to improve how products are surfaced inside ChatGPT in the US, supporting brands including Lancôme and Kérastase. Alongside this, SkinCeuticals, CeraVe and Garnier are part of a global pilot exploring AI-driven advertising that appears when users are already actively searching or comparing products.
Behind the scenes, the partnership moves into more technical territory. Using GPT-Rosalind, a life sciences model from OpenAI, L’Oréal is analysing the skin microbiome at scale. The aim is to further understand the bacteria that support skin health and use that insight to speed up the development of next-generation skincare, including work linked to La Roche-Posay.
AI is also reshaping how the company creates content. OpenAI’s latest models are being integrated into CreAItech, L’Oréal’s internal generative platform used to produce marketing imagery and video. It’s designed to keep outputs aligned with each brand’s identity while delivering faster and less manual production.
Senior executives framed the collaboration as both strategic and practical. Asmita Dubey, L’Oréal’s Chief Digital and Marketing Officer, described the partnership as a way to “augment” consumers, métiers and employees with more demanding and useful AI solutions.
Emmanuel Marill, Managing Director for EMEA at OpenAI, said the work would accelerate research, enable new ways of working and create more intuitive consumer experiences.
Taken together, the changes reflect how L’Oréal is embedding AI across its entire business. The company’s wider roadmap focuses on three things: more personalised consumer tools, smarter ways of working across teams, and stronger internal AI capability. So far, it says around 73,000 employees have been trained in generative AI, with tools like L’OréalGPT already in use.
