The Estée Lauder Companies and Jo Malone London are bringing AI into luxury fragrance with a new AI-powered Scent Advisor that turns online browsing into a guided consultation, using Google Cloud technology to translate everyday language into tailored scent recommendations. The tool aims to make it easier for shoppers in the United States and the United Kingdom to choose perfume confidently without ever stepping into a store.
Bridging the online fragrance gap
The new Jo Malone London Scent Advisor is an AI-driven digital experience designed to mirror the brand’s in-store consultations, mimicking the stylists’ conversation style, where fragrance stylists help shoppers navigate notes, moods, and occasions. Now live on JoMalone.com in the US and UK, the advisor invites customers to describe what they are looking for in their own words, whether it is a scent for themselves or a gift. Instead of relying on rigid questionnaires or filters, the chat builds on the brand’s olfactory expertise and consumer insights to suggest colognes that feel personal and intuitive.
In the background, the tool uses Google’s Gemini model and Google Cloud’s Vertex AI platform to interpret natural language, then map those responses to Jo Malone London’s fragrance data attributes. That means a shopper who says they want something “fresh but cozy for winter evenings” can receive curated options aligned with those emotional cues and note families, rather than a generic list of bestsellers.
How the AI Scent Advisor works
Built by The Estée Lauder Companies’ AI and Innovation teams, the Scent Advisor blends proprietary brand data with large-scale AI to power a conversational interface that feels more like talking to a fragrance expert than filling out a quiz. Customers can start with suggested prompts or type freely, and the system continuously translates their language into olfactory profiles, such as citrus, woody, floral, or gourmand, as well as preferences around intensity and occasion. External coverage notes that the tool is trained on Jo Malone London’s existing scent library and advisor know-how, helping it stay true to the house’s point of view rather than acting like a generic recommender.
The aim is to reduce the uncertainty that usually surrounds buying fragrance online, where shoppers cannot smell or test it on their skin. By surfacing a smaller set of tailored options, the Scent Advisor is designed to increase confidence in full-size purchases and support discovery across the brand’s wider cologne and home fragrance portfolio. Over time, The Estée Lauder Companies also expects the platform to generate deeper insight into how consumers describe and combine scent preferences in their own words.
Strategic move in a fast-growing fragrance market
The launch comes shortly after The Estée Lauder Companies opened its Fragrance Atelier in Paris, a multi-storey hub focused on AI-powered fragrance innovation and end-to-end creation processes. Positioning the Scent Advisor as another key milestone, the company frames fragrance as a strategic growth driver and sees technology as a way to accelerate both product development and consumer experience.
Brian Franz, Chief Technology, Data & Analytics Officer at The Estée Lauder Companies, said the innovation “reimagines what personalized digital experiences can feel like” and helps unlock more granular consumer preference data. Jose Gomes, VP, Retail & Consumer Packaged Goods at Google Cloud, said the collaboration shows how AI can address complex challenges like digital fragrance selling while keeping each brand’s identity intact.
Jo Malone London’s digital innovation track
For Jo Malone London, the Scent Advisor extends an existing strategy of blending craftsmanship with playful, tech-forward storytelling. Recent initiatives include a Scent Layering tool that guides customers in combining colognes, and a TikTok fragrance filter that lets users experiment with scent personas in a social format.
Together, these experiences aim to keep the brand’s signature British elegance and simplicity at the forefront while making online journeys richer and more interactive. As more luxury beauty shoppers start and finish their fragrance purchase paths online, tools like the AI Scent Advisor could become a new standard, offering something closer to a boutique consultation, but available on demand, on any device, and increasingly tuned to individual tastes.
