Die Parfümerie ist auch ein Bereich, in dem KI zum Einsatz kommt. Mittels KI kann man Moleküle generieren, zum Beispiel entschlüsselt sie DNA und generiert neue Sequenzen. In der Parfümerie wird sie längst eingesetzt.
Traditionally, creating a fragrance isn’t fast. After a client provides a brief — usually a mood, memory, or concept — a perfumer begins weeks or months of formulation trials, compounding and revising dozens of modifications, or “mods.” Each must settle before it can be evaluated for balance, projection, and drydown. Raw materials often need years of cultivation. Bottling, regulatory reviews, packaging, and testing follow. From concept to shelf, a single perfume can take six to 18 months — even longer in luxury. And like fine wines, fragrance materials vary with climate concerns. One year’s yield will not smell like the next one, or the one before.
AI isn’t coming to fragrance — it’s already here, and in most things that the average consumer smells. The four fragrance conglomerates responsible for most of what the world smells — DSM-Firmenich, Givaudan, IFF, and Symrise — all integrate AI into their pipelines.
The principal perfumer at DSM-Firmenich, Frank Voelkl, who is behind the fragrances that make up so much of our current odor aura — Le Labo’s Santal 33, Glossier’s You, Tom Ford’s Tuscan Leather — uses AI on a daily basis as part of his creative process. “When I began as a perfumer, there were no emails — we were still communicating with fax machines, you know. I started by handwriting my formulas. The beauty of AI is that it manages regulatory concerns, issues around stability, phasing, performance. These tools are tremendously helpful in resolving technical issues so I can focus much more on the creative part, which requires my imagination, emotions, intuition, and the human factor. It’s like a clerk.”