Firmenich, a fragrance and taste company, has won Digital Innovation Of The Year at the Digital Economy Award 2021 in Switzerland. The award recognises the company's AI capabilities and Formulae Generator, designed to assist the development of fragrances & flavours.
“We are very proud to receive the Digital Innovation of the Year 2021 award, which is a tribute to the industry-leading work of our d-lab, digital, Perfumery and Taste & Beyond teams on augmented creativity,” said Firmenich CEO Gilbert Ghostine. “AI is a cornerstone of Firmenich’s innovation that allows us to marry the most fundamental elements of our DNA: cutting-edge research and development with the unique expertise and creativity of our perfumers and flavourists.”
“Leveraging our 126 years of savoir-faire and using machine learning, we are creating the winning products of the future for our customers and consumers,” said Eric Saracchi, Firmenich Chief Digital & Information Officer. “Our recipe for success was to bring our experts, as well as start-ups and students, together to keep on driving new frontiers in augmented creativity.”
Lukas Bär, Jury President of the Digital Innovation of the Year award, said: "Firmenich has taken a very refreshing approach, which is convincing. It is daring, courageous and innovative to combine humans and technology in such an emotional field - the sense of smell. As Firmenich says, there are more astronauts than perfumers. Clearly, this more than justifies the need for innovation in this industry in particular."
The company says its AI-augmented creation enables specifically tailored perfumery and taste solutions with improved speed-to-market. In 2020, the company launched its first AI-augmented laundry care fragrances and created a flavour by AI.
Building on these developments, the Formulae Generator connects an initial composition with data such as specific applications and olfactive descriptors (scent & taste). The system is designed to help creators understand which ingredients to use in various products, providing a base from bespoke creations can be supplied for customers.
The annual Digital Economy Award, organized by the trade association swissICT, digitalswitzerland, and publisher Netzmedien, recognises digitally advanced organisations in Switzerland as well as the digital projects in eight categories.
