AI Is Shortening Product Timelines in Beauty and Food

Major consumer goods companies are leveraging artificial intelligence to tackle long-standing challenges in product development. From beauty ingredients to food formulations, the technology is enabling faster iteration, better optimization, and more sustainable outcomes.

L'Oreal has reported that AI helps simulate ingredient performance and narrow down formulation options before moving to lab testing. This allows product teams to test new combinations of molecules and assess their potential benefits more quickly.

Mondelez is employing similar strategies in the food sector. They use AI tools to generate recipe ideas and reduce the number of physical samples needed during product development. Additionally, AI helps Mondelez identify alternative recipe options when ingredients vary due to availability, price, or other requirements.

Nestle has set an ambitious target: removing artificial food colourings from all products worldwide by the end of 2026. To meet this goal, they plan to screen natural alternatives using AI. Nestle and IBM Research also developed a generative AI tool designed to identify high-barrier packaging materials in 2025.

Haleon announced a five-year collaboration with Microsoft covering consumer insights, product innovation, and supply chain operations. Barry Callebaut partnered with NotCo to use AI in chocolate recipe development, including plant-based ingredient alternatives.

The results speak for themselves. For Mondelez, the AI tool helps create and test recipe options more efficiently, reducing the number of samples typically generated during product innovation.

AI allows product teams to test new combinations of molecules and assess their potential benefits more quickly. The technology helps companies save time and resources while improving product quality.

As these companies demonstrate, AI is proving itself as a practical tool in consumer goods development. It's not about hype—it's about measurable improvements in speed, sustainability, and efficiency across multiple industry sectors.