The Next Billion Seconds with Mark Pesce ALWAYS IMPERFECT - THE BIG END OF AI
Nov 4, 2025
In this engaging talk, Alex Davison, CEO of L'Oreal Groupe ANZ and a leader in business innovation, shares insights on L'Oreal's transformative journey with AI. Discover how the beauty giant balances its rich heritage with a startup spirit to foster agility. Alex highlights practical applications of AI in R&D, marketing, and employee reskilling. Learn about intentional governance in AI deployment and their early prevention measures against bias and privacy issues, revealing a roadmap for others in the industry to follow.
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Scale Enables Value-Adding Complexity
- L'Oréal is a large, diverse company with 36 brands and thousands of SKUs serving many channels across Australia.
- Alex Davison frames that scale as "value-adding complexity" necessary to deliver beauty at national scale.
Marrying Scale With Startup Agility
- L'Oréal intentionally blends 'dinosaur' scale with 'startup' agility — the Unicornus Rex metaphor.
- That cultural fusion underpins their approach to rapid innovation while leveraging long-term R&D assets.
Early AI Experiments In Product Experience
- L'Oréal launched AI-enabled consumer tools as early as 2017, like La Roche-Posay's Spot Scan for acne diagnostics.
- They also used virtual try-ons and 3D-printed lipstick to keep experimentation alive during lockdowns.