How Nvidia is Powering AI Innovation and Augmenting Experiences at Lowe's and L’Oreal

Nvidia, a world leader in artificial intelligence computing, kicked off its developer conference last month to announce new platforms, partnerships and AI-developments in 2024. In the spirit of innovation and futuristic development, the conference felt high-tech. The stadium-style setting gave attendees the feeling that this was no ordinary corporate event. 

In the opening keynote, Founder and CEO Jensen Wong approached the stage with confidence and, in his shiny leather jacket, joked that the modern display was, in fact, not a concert but a developers conference. 

Wong wasn’t the only high-powered executive in attendance - he shared that the room represented, from event attendees to speakers, $100 trillion of the world’s industries. Researchers from a diverse range of sciences were present, from climate technology to robotics to self-driving cars and AI.

To kick off the week, Wong started by introducing the importance of technological development. He shared that the computer is the single most important instrument of society today, and any fundamental transformations in computing are profound - they affect every industry. This deep impact means that new technology like generative AI will also have consequences across industries.

As the industry continues to progress, Nvidia’s GTC took focus on how leaders can prepare today for what is coming next. Described as the ‘Woodstock of AI’, the conference shared major developments including the unveiling of Blackwell, the ‘World’s Most Powerful Chip’ that will power a new era of computing, ‘Project GR00T’ a model for humanoid robots and Omniverse cloud streams to Apple’s VisionPro enabling 3D workflows and applications.

The event also offered specific sessions across industries to reflect on AI development with panels and keynotes from executives and leaders leveraging new technology.

Here we dive into how Lowe’s and L’Oreal are working with Nvidia to transform operations and leverage generative AI to enhance experiences.

How AI is Transforming Lowe’s: From Digital Twins to Generative AI

In her session at GTC, Seemantini Godbole, Executive Vice President and Chief Digital and Information Officer at Lowe’s, discussed how the organization is working to weave AI throughout all aspects of retail.

As a retailer specialized in home improvement, the company is all about the home. Customers come to Lowe’s for their everyday needs - from painting a bedroom to renovating their kitchen, the brand ultimately plays a meaningful role in their lives. With this in mind, Lowe’s is aiming to make home improvement projects as frictionless as possible. 

To achieve a flawless end-to-end customer experience, Godbole and her team want to give their associates AI superpowers. The home improvement brand is working to give every customer the feeling that they are getting uniquely personalized treatment. 

This starts from the moment a customer steps into their store, Godbole shares that the most common question is, ‘Where is this product?’ So giving their associates the insight they need to properly address a customer and give them the most accurate and relevant information is a critical step to achieving ‘superpower’ status.

Beyond just the in-person experience, Lowe’s is working to establish an omnichannel journey that feels intuitive and seamless from online to in-store. The journey for customers often looks similar: customers find a product online and head to their nearest store to get a sense of what the product looks and feels like.

Lowe’s wants to make this experience more fluid by giving in-store agents the details of a digital interaction so they can pick up where customers drop-off digitally. From there, customers may have an associate come to their home to measure, receive a quote digitally, and have the installer finish the job.

This typical journey is what Godbole describes as omnichannel - it is both in the customer’s home and in the store. Bridging this experience to create a seamless line between the virtual and in-store journey is a key goal for Lowe’s.

To achieve this, Lowe’s is working with Nvidia to leverage digital twin technology. As the first ever retailer to create a 3D digital twin of their stores, the brand is making moves to become an innovative leader in retail technology. With digital twins, the technology can absorb retail data and develop identical digital planograms (diagrams that show how to place products on shelves and displays in stores) to create the most effective in-store layouts. 

In the omniverse, merchandising specialists can test combinations of product placements and understand how to leverage different products and layouts effectively. Digital twin technology gives leaders more agency with testing and simulation. Without the stakes of a real-life set-up, leaders can freely test, learn and grow. 

Lowe’s is also leveraging AI to give associates the superpowers they are seeking. With AI, associates can receive hour by hour and department by department sales weaved into their workflow. This gives them a true look at how customers spend their time and where they are seeing success, which enables associates to guide customers with specific, data-driven insight. 

L’Oréal and Generative AI: Augmenting Beauty Marketing with AI

Asmita Dubey, Chief Digital and Marketing Officer at L’Oréal, also joined the Nvidia stage to discuss generative AI in beauty marketing. As a global leader in beauty, the 115 year old company has been working to innovate and improve with the help of AI technology.

L’Oréal has been leaning into generative AI to create beauty that moves the world. Dubey shares that creativity and technology are now closer than ever before - leveraging technology has helped the brand enhance creative campaigns and establish compelling marketing materials.

But, innovation has been implemented with caution and care at L’Oréal. The beauty brand has built out a generative AI task force to create responsible frameworks, put guardrails in place and begin to define the do’s and don’ts of AI.

With these frameworks in position, L’Oréal outlined a few goals for the technology: to upskill the organization, build community and augment marketing capabilities/content. The brand is also leveraging it for customer care by empowering agents with intent detection and key insights to drive customer satisfaction.

Dubey introduced the brand's AI approach with the phrase ‘CreAITech’ an approach to AI that sparks creativity and enhances experiences. The digital leader shared that beauty is ultimately a human need: it is deeply personal, tied to self-identity, expression and confidence. 

To align with these inherently human aspects of beauty, L’Oréal vowed to not use AI generated faces, body, hair and skin to support or enhance product benefits. This gives customers the assurance that AI is not over accentuating product features, bolstering trust and brand loyalty.

To demonstrate the impact of generative AI on L’Oréal’s marketing efforts, Dubey shared key examples of the brand prompting generative AI and the results they derived from the tool. In an impressive lineup of images, L’Oréal shared the power of AI in generating images and advertisements that truly align with the brand’s image and tone. Even legacy products that have their own distinct reputation felt accurately reflected in AI-generated ads.

As a marketing and creative tool the benefits are clear: generative AI is shaping the future of creativity and giving companies the tools to do more. L’Oréal’s use of generative AI demonstrates the true power the technology has in forming beautiful imagery and preserving brand values. 

Generative AI and the Future of Experiences

In both presentations, leaders shared the positive impact generative AI has had on their organization. At a time when leaders can be skeptical of new technology and unsure where to begin their journey, it is eye-opening to see brands that are using generative AI to its fullest potential.

Understanding how leading organizations are leaning into the generative AI buzz and making real changes is essential to innovating and improving across industries. Whether it’s being leveraged as a marketing tool or a mechanism for retail reinvention, generative AI is not just making improvements but changing the way executives structure and lead their organization. 

Nvidia’s GTC event made this reality clear: generative AI is impactful and it’s ready for you, if you have the framework, strategy and drive to innovate. By leading with human-centered innovation, organizations can leverage new technology like generative AI to augment performance and enhance ‘human’ aspects of the customer experience. 

While it was certainly introduced as a next-generation tool to streamline support and automate operations, generative AI now has the potential to make brands more human than ever before. When considering Lowe’s use case, the brand is not just focusing on efficiency but relying on the tool to give front-line employees superpowers and add value to the in-store experience. 

It is these use cases that will likely inform the future of experiences: interactions that feel both streamlined and deeply personal. While GTC covered a gambit of new technology and innovation, the focus on generative AI felt significant. In a world where experiences are everything, generative AI is there to help organizations meet rising expectations and uplevel operations to excite next-generation customers.

Main image by Stas Knop

First image by La Miko

Second Image by Shiny Diamond