Procter & Gamble Co. today revealed the launch of a global web platform called the Olay Skin Advisor, which enables a woman to have a selfie analyzed via smartphone to determine the P&G products best suited to care for her face.
The Cincinnati-based consumer goods company (NYSE: PG) said the new Olay Skin Advisor platform, which has been piloted in the United States in beta form, is powered by artificial intelligence technologies. Enlarge
P&G's Olay Skin Advisor provides a woman with precise, personalized skin education and… more
COURTESY OF P&G
The Skin Advisor provides a woman with precise, personalized skin education and product recommendations on any smartphone or tablet based on the photo submitted.
The goal is to help women better navigate what P&G described as the often-confusing beauty aisle at groceries or other stores. Buying decisions can be complicated because there are so many products from which to choose.
“Shopping for skin care has never been more overwhelming as women are faced with thousands of products and promises,” said Dr. Frauke Neuser, P&G’s principal scientist for the Olay brand.
“Olay’s research shows that browsing the shelf is the No. 1 purchase influencer for women, yet one-third of women do not find what they are looking for,” Neuser said. “We saw an opportunity to help women understand their skin better than ever before they even step foot in the store.”
In other words, the Olay Skin Advisor is a clever marketing device for P&G products.
Here's how it works: A woman using the Olay Skin Advisor is instructed to take a photo of her face with a smartphone or tablet computer.
The Skin Advisor analyzes the face to determine her current “skin age,” which P&G defined as how young or old she looks. Also analyzed are the areas of the face determined to be driving that age.
Following a series of questions about a woman’s skin concerns and product preferences, the Olay Skin Advisor recommends which P&G products would work best. The answers are based on P&G data about what products have worked well for women with the same skin concerns, needs and preferences.
Though P&G is pitching the Olay Skin Advisor to women, men can use it, too. Based on the answers I entered on my iPhone, the Skin Advisor recommended that I use Olay Complete All Day Moisture Cream for sensitive skin with a sun protection factor of 15.
“Olay and other leading brands are using (artificial intelligence) to infuse devices and apps with intelligence, bringing new experiences, unprecedented personalization and real benefits to people’s lives,” said Greg Estes, vice president of developer programs at NVIDIA, whose GPU-accelerated deep learning platform was used to train Olay Skin Advisor’s neural network.
GPU-accelerated computing is the use of a graphics processing unit together with a central processing unit to accelerate deep learning, analytics and engineering applications, according to NVIDIA.
The global launch of Olay Skin Advisor coincides with a series of upgrades to the P&G platform in the United States, where a 1.0 beta version has been live since late 2016. Olay Skin Advisor 2.0 will launch in the United States in mid-March.
With more than 1 million visits to date, "Skin Advisor is already helping women find the right products for their skin type,” P&G stated.
The “selfie optimization technology” in the 2.0 version provides a more accurate skin analysis by enabling women to upload the best-quality photo, P&G said.
Olay’s VizID Technology uses labeled pixels of a woman’s selfie as well as what has been gleaned from the skin of the hundreds of thousands of selfies in the database.
“The more photos and data that are processed, the more Skin Advisor learns about women’s skin at every age and about their skin concerns and preferences, making it increasingly smarter with each use,” P&G stated.
“The Olay Skin Advisor detects areas that are driving her ‘skin age,’ identifies her ‘Best’ and ‘Improvement’ areas, and analyzes these areas to determine what’s holding it back from looking 10 years younger,” P&G stated.
“Also new with the 2.0 upgrade, synaptic intelligence combines the experience, training and learning of Olay scientists, skin care experts and consumers," P&G stated. "(The Skin Advisor) searches millions of combinations of products to pinpoint a personalized regimen, and explains why it’s right for her.”
To begin your own skin analysis, click here on any smartphone or tablet.
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