Coty turns to OpenAI as beauty companies formalize AI adoption

Cosmetic conglomerate Coty and OpenAI, creator of ChatGPT, are collaborating to expand the beauty company’s use of AI across selected parts of its global business. 

The deal grants Coty access to ChatGPT Enterprise, enabling employees to use OpenAI’s “most capable” models with advanced security and privacy protections. According to Coty, the AI will support employees in their daily work and collaboration to improve efficiency and operability.

The company stresses that it will keep human expertise at the center of its operations and that the technology will not replace creative or strategic roles in the business.

“This collaboration enables Coty teams to securely use OpenAI’s leading, enterprise-grade AI capabilities in line with Coty’s expectations for privacy, quality, and performance,” says Jerome Auvinet, chief officer of information, digital innovation, and business services at Coty. 

The beauty giant says the collaboration strengthens its commitment to responsible and intentional innovation. It says it will maintain clear governance, guardrails, and quality standards.

“[The partnership] helps our teams work more efficiently and focus on higher-value contributions,” Auvinet adds.

Coty’s partnership with OpenAI builds on the company’s accelerating internal AI initiative and a global upskilling program designed to equip employees with the tools to use AI in their day‑to‑day work. Live training, hands-on workshops, and leadership engagement about AI hope to support how teams think, create, and deliver.

Coty is moving to scale enterprise AI use while keeping human oversight in place.Targeted tech

The collaboration reflects a broader shift among beauty companies adopting AI in a controlled environment, rather than through experimentation. 

To optimize its marketing processes, L’Oréal Turkey partnered with AdCreative.ai, a platform specialized in creative generation. Their collaboration automates routine marketing tasks, such as creating different formats of the same visuals for different channels.

Nicole Walsh, head of communications at AdCreative.ai, told Personal Care Insights that “for many teams, the question is no longer if they’ll incorporate AI into their workflows, but how.”

Companies are also leveraging the tech for qualitative consumer data analytics, enabling the development of more targeted innovations. International Flavors and Fragrances, for example, uses AI to process real-time consumer feedback and apply analysis to improve its fragrance innovation.

AI is becoming more closely embedded in beauty’s daily operations, permeating the value chain from marketing to R&D. Yesterday, Kolmar Holdings debuted an affiliate platform that can create a complete product concept — including formulation, colors, and packaging — from simple user keyword inputs.

The platform essentially promises output equivalent to that of an entire development team, but industry players are divided on whether human judgment is necessary for quality. Kolmar, which also leads South Korea’s autonomous AI-factory push, appears to be innovating in the affirmative, while Coty’s announcement holds firm that “human expertise remains central.”