L'Oréal Partners with OpenAI to Scale AI Content Production

L'Oréal has formalized a partnership with OpenAI to accelerate its AI-driven marketing production capabilities, the company announced this week at the VivaTech conference in Paris. The agreement brings OpenAI's latest models into L'Oréal's proprietary CreAItech system, which the beauty conglomerate uses to generate marketing content at scale across its portfolio of 40 brands.

The deal extends beyond content production. Maybelline will develop a virtual try-on application integrated directly into ChatGPT, while L'Oréal will provide product information to OpenAI for inclusion in the underlying models that power ChatGPT responses. The partnership also grants L'Oréal access to GPT-Rosalind, a reasoning model designed for life sciences applications.

Why it matters

L'Oréal's approach demonstrates how large advertisers are building internal AI infrastructure rather than waiting for platforms to deliver turnkey solutions. With 10,000 marketing staff worldwide and a €1.5 billion ($1.98 billion) technology investment in 2025, the company represents a test case for whether AI content systems can maintain creative quality while dramatically reducing costs. The 40% production cost reduction L'Oréal reports could reshape budget allocation across the marketing industry if replicated at scale.

Building a multi-model content engine

CreAItech, which L'Oréal developed starting in 2024, already incorporates models from multiple providers including Google (Gemini, Veo3, and Imagen), Adobe, Stable Diffusion, and Seedance. The system enables marketing teams to generate still images and video for social media, e-commerce, and other channels requiring high volumes of visual content.

According to Asmita Dubey, L'Oréal's chief digital and marketing officer, the company selected OpenAI specifically for its text-to-image capabilities. "They come with different strengths. We want to add OpenAI's image model because the text-to-image rendering is so good," Dubey told Digiday.

CEO Nicolas Hieronimus disclosed in the company's recent earnings call that staff had used CreAItech to produce 50,000 marketing assets, achieving the 40% cost reduction. L'Oréal has trained 70,000 employees in AI use and works with 500,000 influencers and creators annually, applying AI systems to brief development and relationship management.

Testing ChatGPT advertising

L'Oréal has been running paid advertisements on ChatGPT since April, testing the platform with its CeraVe, pharmaceutical, and Garnier brands in the United States. Dubey characterized the effort as exploratory, tracking whether consumers click through to purchase but declining to share specific performance metrics.

The company uses a proprietary tool called BETiQ to measure AI system impact. Like similar systems built by Unilever and Kellanova, L'Oréal aims to create an automated feedback loop where creative effectiveness data informs media buying decisions, though Dubey acknowledged this remains aspirational.

L'Oréal increased its worldwide advertising and promotions spending by 10% compared to 2024, reaching $15.48 billion—approximately 32% of sales. Roughly 60% of that budget goes to paid social media.

According to Gartner analyst Greg Carlucci, the timing is strategic: nearly one in five consumers now use generative AI tools to find information, and personal care brands are experiencing website traffic declines as search behavior shifts toward AI-led experiences. Gartner research indicates 70% of CMOs consider shaping their companies into AI leaders a critical objective, with marketing organizations allocating an average of 25% of budgets to AI investments.

Details were first reported by Digiday.