BASF’s digital science specialists weigh in on how AI drives personal care evolution
17 Oct 2023 | BASF
As a growing industry catalyst, AI is being harnessed by brands and suppliers alike to best understand shifting consumer demands and preferences, while tailoring differentiated solutions adapted to evolving needs. Personal Care Insights speaks to BASF on how the company is harnessing AI to identify market gaps and offer smart solutions on selecting ingredients when formulating for today’s generation of consumers.
This is Benjamin Ferrer for Personal Care Insights, and I'm joined here today by two representatives of Bassi, and they're here to speak to us about the emergent application of AI across the personal care industry.
So, first we have Malika Tiwari, and she's the digital service lead North America Personal Care Solutions.
And we also have Dr.
Sandeep Bhattacharya, and he's the manager of data science, digitalization and innovation management, Global R&D Personal Care Solutions.
So, hello to you both, and shall we dive right into it?
The first question that I have is, how do you see AI transforming the personal care industry?
And what are some of the key drivers behind this transformation?
Yeah, I think that, you know, AI is certainly like one of the catalysts that is kind of driving the personal care industry right now, and it will continue to do so.
And, also kind of shaping the way, you know, personal care brands operate and how consumers choose to interact with those products.
So, essentially, I see that like, you know, the key drivers that are really driving AI within the industry.
Is one, like the need for differentiation, you know, with so many brands that are coming up in the market, there's a, a bigger need to kind of have a wide space for innovation, have innovative products that differentiates a brand, and this is where like AI can play a really important role and also, You know, consumer needs are constantly changing, so I think AI can really be a driver in, in these, in these ever-changing needs.
So I think those, those would be the things that I'd say.
Yeah, I'd like to add something to that, Malika.
So, so, you know, when we go to the supermarket and we see personal care products, be it shampoo or skincare products, you know, there, there are formulators behind these products, right?
And it's the day to day activate, day to day activity or day to day work of, of formulators in order to change certain ingredients in these formulation and see how the formulation turns up.
This turns out In this process, AI also can support formulators and essentially empower them to choose which ingredients or to give recommendations of which ingredients they should select to get certain kinds of properties of the final formulation.
So this is one more way in which AI or mathematical or scientific modeling could help.
Yes, and could you also share some concrete examples of how AI is being applied to product development in the personal care sector?
Yeah, I think one of the, one of the examples that comes to mind is especially within BSF, and for our customers, you know, we have a platform called Dlight.
So essentially what it does is it pulls AI powered market insights where it's going to analyze consumer preferences, trends in the industry, any kind of market gaps, and then provide brands with, you know, retail insights and also, information.
On white space for innovation.
So, it kind of helps them understand consumer demands and then make a very informed choice on product development.
And I see that, you know, a lot of brands and, and retails, products are kind of using this in the idea generation stage of their, product development process, which is kind of a really interesting use case, for, you know, AI being applied to personal care sector.
And, and there's also one more aspect, right, and the, and the, and probably the biggest aspect for us is sustainability, right?
So, there are often personal care ingredients they use, for example, silicone or mineral oils for a very long time.
Why?
Because these, these emollients, for example, are stable, also stable on human skin, and they are cheap, right?
But at the same time, they are syn.
And they are non-biodegradable, and there's an increasing consciousness of all of us as consumers also to replace synthetic ingredients with natural ingredients, right.
Or or replace it with biodegradable ingredients.
And here, especially we have our digital service as a part of delight which is known as emollient Maesto, which uses scientific models in order to suggest mixtures between natural-based emollients that could potentially replace silicone emollients or mineral oil emollients to our customers.
Yes, and what would you say are some of the key benefits that your team at BASSF is seeing from AI based services, not just for your customers, but also for your your colleagues in the personal care industry?
Yeah, and that's, , I would like to gladly answer this question.
So, essentially we, we, we can, we can see two key, , benefits.
So, 11 of the, one of the benefits from our digital services is that it empowers our formulators.
Like I already said, no, so when a formulator has a task to replace synthetic ingredients in the final formulation, the task is often that the solutions that the formulator come up, comes up with.
That means the properties of the final formulation should match exactly that of the formulation containing the containing the synthetic ingredients as , so that the end consumer doesn't feel a difference.
This can be quite challenging because how does a formulator does it, right?
So, formulator has in the past experience with formulating with a particular ingredient, and now he or she needs to replace this ingredient with natural solutions.
So the, the process can be quite cumbersome because the formulator would then need to look at prospects from different suppliers to look at which natural ingredients to use, and then there's also the question of using more than one ingredient.
Often personal care products have more than one emollient, for example, right?
And the question is which emollient to use and which ratio to mix to get the exact sensory, right?
This process, you don't need.
To do, for example, with emollient Maesto, which is one of the digital servers in Delight, right?
So it kind of empowers the formulator.
It tells the formulator which, which is the best performing natural-based biodegradable emollient mixture out of a portfolio, so that before the formulator actually starts doing making formulation, he or she knows the best performing mixtures which theoretically match a given synthetic.
So this is, this is one part.
The second part is, is something which is BSF internal because the light and emollient mice is popular amongst our customers because there's a lot of need for such digital services.
Also for other product classes, we have also internally within BSF have invested in instructuring our data.
So for example, collecting all the data in experimental data in a systematic manner in in in.
In a data lake, right?
So, so that it can, can, kind of, assist with upcoming development, upcoming AI-based digital services in other product groups for our customers.
So this is also a benefit that we see also within BSF.
Thank you for that.
So, we just looked at some of the contemporary influences and applications of AI.
What now is the future of AI in this evolving personal care landscape and how can brands prepare for it?
Yeah, I think that, you know, AI is continue, will continue to kind of drive innovation.
There is, you know, so much consumer need right now that's coming up in terms of highly personalized products and also sustainable skincare, and personal care like Sandeep mentioned.
So, I think it's for brands to really integrate AI into their product development processes or also have it as a part of their strategy, in, in the future, it, it kind of, would be integral that they invest in, you know, AI kind of technologies, they prioritize AI practices.
But also in a very seamless fashion, there are a lot of third party platforms that are relevant, such as Delight that they could kind of go to to get understanding of what is happening in the market.
They need to kind of stay updated in the future for what are the conversations that are happening on social media, what what is the ultimate need of the consumers.
How can they be up to date with the latest trends in the personal care industry?
And I think all of this AI based information can truly come from robust like AI platforms that that already exist in the market.
So just really leveraging them for their product development would be, would be the key in the coming few years.
Yes, and as a final roundup question, what advice would you give to emerging personal care companies that are looking to harness AI technology and also thrive in today's competitive landscape?
I think the, the thing that I would say is that just, to have, a product that in the next few years is always going to be relevant, leveraging AI to find that right space for innovation on what is it in this competitive personal care market that doesn't exist and could be a unique differentiator and a niche by really truly understanding.
The, the market space and what are the products in the market, and then having a -defined way to, to kind of integrate that in their product development process, I think would be, would be how the emerging personal care brands kind of, can harness AI.
Yeah, and I would like to add something to that.
So, you know, the reliability of an AI prediction model is a lot dependent on the data behind it, right?
And, and we here at BSF, have invested on systematic data, right?
And this is, this is, I would, I would also recommend it also, for, emerging, so, so, other, other companies and personal care also.
So, if you, if you need prediction model, On, on, on, on, for example, formulations or properties of the ingredients you have to invest on, on, on data, or you could alternatively also take advantage of delight where we have a systematic, you can take advantage of the data that we have invested on.
And, and, and, and gain it.
So with, with delight, you already, you already get access to the data that we have invested in, in a part for, for, in addition to the AI models, and that would also, you know, would be beneficial for, for companies in, in the personal care market.
So very exciting and dynamic space to watch.
Thank you very much, Malika and Sandy, for your insights.
