In the 'Swiss Silicon Valley' they use artificial intelligence to define how people smell
Is artificial intelligence already starting to decide how you smell? Before the pandemic, it was popular in the United States to smell sweet: the trend to use fruit aromas -even caramel- in consumer products such as shampoo or detergent had become notable.
But there are signs of a change. The Covid-19 pandemic has changed the way people want their clothes, their homes, and themselves to smell , and not just in the US . Now people want to believe that everything they touch is spotless, even antiseptic . The astringent omnipresence of alcohol in gel has been installed in the olfactory consciousness of the public, along with citrus fruits, menthols and other similar products, as a symbol of hygiene .
What people like to smell is constantly changing, more gradually than seismic, but with huge commercial consequences. We rarely stop to think that a large part of our environment -and the products we consume in it- is scented. But almost everything is.
On the outskirts of Geneva , between the suburbs of Vernier and Satigny, is proof of how lucrative aroma (and taste) can be. It's the " Silicon Valley of smell," says Gilbert Ghostine, CEO of Firmenich , one of two companies based here that dominate the world of scents. The other is Givaudan . (IFF, a third industry giant, is based in New York.)
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Both Givaudan and Firmenich have an annual growth rate of around 5% in the last 10 years. The pandemic has barely made a dent.
Both are very competitive. Olfactory espionage is real and a code of silence surrounds the clients of the companies. Both Givaudan and Firmenich brag about their technological prowess and the clever things they do. (This extends to food , where the world's vegans have a lot to thank them for. Firmenich likes to boast that it eliminated 1.2 million calories from food products in 2020 thanks to its sweeteners and flavor enhancers .)
The efforts they put in are demanding, almost Willy Wonka -like. In his laboratories outside Geneva, there are entire rooms filled with dozens of washing machines , in which different detergents and scents are tested on regulation sets of underwear, towels and T-shirts. Others are filled with drying racks to see what new fragrances smell like when clothes dry.
But the real advantage of these companies is knowing what their customers want. When it comes to anticipating the slow, hidden changes in the olfactory desires of consumers around the world, data is invaluable.
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Last month, Firmenich launched his "scentmate" site. Customers no longer have to contact an expensive perfumer to find out what they want their new candle , detergent or moisturizer to smell like. They just have to load their preferences on the web: something fresh? something intoxicating? - and an algorithm will make recommendations .
This is especially powerful as the world goes global, and a key factor in the growth of the sector. It is increasingly important to adapt products to the tastes and expectations of local cultures. Fragrances that evoke air-drying clothes and urban escapism can be very different in England than in, say, Thailand .
So the site allows customers to specify other factors, such as geography and price, to recommend scents that suit their needs. It's backed by a constant stream of consumer data , collected from test panels around the world. Givaudan has also seen data and digitization as vital to transforming the way it presents and sells its fragrances.
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These big olfactory data may show, for example, that clove is becoming a more popular scent among East London hipsters in high-end cosmetics , and that historically that market has led scent preferences in Berlin . among a similar demographic, with a two-year time lag before adoption in broader consumer markets.
All this does not mean that the art of perfumers is over. In the realm of fine fragrances, Silicon Valley noses are being asked to seek out ever more unusual and aggressive scents. Uniqueness and originality are the signs of elite status. So much so that even "animalistic" and "fecal" scents are making their way - albeit in small amounts - into expensive new fragrances, one perfumer told me. Scentmate couldn't predict it.
This could also tell us something about how artificial intelligence and big data will affect our lives in general. The great social divide in the future may be between those who can afford to be original and those whose tastes are shaped by algorithms .
