The beauty company is testing advertising in Google's AI Overviews and working with major technology platforms as conversational search changes how consumers discover products.
Global beauty company L'Oréal is expanding its artificial intelligence-led marketing strategy as conversational search platforms increasingly influence how consumers discover, compare and evaluate products. The company is testing advertising within Google's AI Overviews and exploring opportunities with technology providers including OpenAI, Alibaba and Amazon.
The developments reflect L'Oréal's efforts to adapt its digital marketing operations as consumers increasingly use AI-powered tools for product recommendations and purchasing decisions, rather than relying exclusively on traditional search engines.
Asmita Dubey, Chief Digital and Marketing Officer at L'Oréal Group, has identified AI as an important component of the company's marketing strategy, with its applications extending across employee productivity, business operations and consumer engagement.
Speaking to Fortune, Dubey said, "Marketing is about the consumer. The reason we are talking about AI is because more than a billion consumers are on it."
The company is focusing on how its products are represented within AI-generated responses, where recommendations may be influenced by product information, online content, reviews and other digital sources.
Unlike conventional search results, which typically present users with multiple website links, conversational AI systems can generate consolidated answers based on information gathered from different sources.
This has brought greater attention to generative engine optimisation (GEO), which involves structuring brand information and digital content to improve their accessibility and interpretation by AI systems.
L'Oréal has been standardising its advertising accounts and product data across platforms including Google and Meta. The company is also using AI internally to support research, product development, content creation and marketing measurement.
According to Dubey, almost 20% of L'Oréal's marketing investments are now AI-led. The company is also incorporating machine learning into its return-on-investment measurement processes to assess marketing effectiveness.
The shift comes as emerging data indicates differences in consumer behaviour across AI-driven and conventional digital channels.
Adobe's second-quarter 2026 analysis found that retail visitors referred by AI sources in March converted at a 42% higher rate and generated 37% more revenue per visit than visitors from non-AI sources.
However, these figures relate to referral traffic and do not establish that paid advertisements within AI-generated search results deliver equivalent performance.
For marketers, the development introduces additional considerations around brand visibility, data accuracy and attribution as AI platforms increasingly mediate interactions between consumers and businesses.
Product descriptions, customer reviews, editorial coverage and structured website information can all contribute to how AI systems interpret and present brands.
L'Oréal's approach also involves closer coordination between marketing and technology teams as AI becomes embedded across content production, campaign management and consumer research.
The company's ongoing experiments highlight how established advertisers are adjusting their digital strategies to account for AI-assisted product discovery, while continuing to evaluate the commercial returns from these emerging channels.
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