Shafaqna English | by Farinaz Parnianifard, Artificial intelligence is transforming the perfume industry — from personalised scent creation for shoppers to faster, cheaper formulation behind the scenes, as The Financial Times wrote.
In stores like The Fragrance Shop on London’s Oxford Street, AI-powered “sensory machines” such as EveryHuman allow customers to create bespoke perfumes in minutes. Similarly, Barcelona-based Scircle uses an AI perfumer called Aura that generates scents based on a simple chat conversation. These tools aim to democratise custom fragrance creation, once reserved for elites, and appeal to younger consumers seeking self-expression.
Personalisation is a major driver: nearly 45% of under-45s use fragrance to express identity, fuelling demand for niche perfumes and scent layering. But AI’s impact goes far beyond retail novelty.
Behind the scenes, AI is accelerating research, formulation, compliance and testing. Companies like Moodify use mathematical scent models to predict how ingredients combine, helping brands reformulate products faster, reduce development time from 18 months to three, and cut costs by up to 30%. This efficiency is crucial in a market shaped by rapid, TikTok-driven trends.
Major fragrance houses such as Givaudan use AI tools like Carto to help perfumers experiment with thousands of ingredients and create instant samples. Industry leaders emphasise that AI is designed to assist — not replace — human creativity.
Start-ups like Osmo are pushing even further, developing “digital smell” models that link molecular structure to scent, with the goal of giving computers a true sense of smell.
From personalised perfumes to molecular design, AI is reshaping how fragrances are imagined, developed and brought to market — making the industry faster, more accessible and more data-driven than ever before.
Source: Financial Times