"Created by robots for humans" is a special edition body spray for young men which has been developed using augmented reality and artificial intelligence in a bid to produce the perfect scent and packaging. Axe A.I. (LYNX A.I. in the UK), is the result of a specially designed AI applied to analyze 6,000 perfume ingredients with 3.5million potential combinations with the goal of discovering the ideal fragrance. The result combines an aromatic floral blend of sage, artemisia, and mint, refreshed with marine, apple and citrus notes and finished with a woody, ambery, and moss background. Not only did the brand use AI algorithms to help create the scent but they are doubling down on technology and are using Augmented Reality (AR) to help market it. Powered by Zappar's WebAR technology, all limited edition Lynx/Axe A.I. packs will feature a smartphone scannable QR code that will launch a web page where British rapper Aitch will introduce the product and ask the user to spray an AR can of LYNX/Axe in the air to reveal a code allowing entry in a special competition.

Nicolas Maire is the model of a professional French chef with years of experience and 18 Michelin stars under his belt, a man who dominates his kitchen dispensing nuggets of culinary wisdom as he prepares food for his guests. Today, this kitchen is buried inside a sprawling corporate HQ on the outskirts of Geneva. Mr Maire works for Firmenich, a business with a perfume industry pedigree stretching back to 1895. Firmenich's nose for a new market saw it diversify into food ingredients as the public appetite for alternatives to meat led to a scramble to put plant-based food on supermarket shelves. The company says there is a global market for plant-based meat substitutes of $25bn (£19bn) and believes this will grow to $200bn by 2030.

Have a beef with beef? A burgeoning veggie burger industry is using artificial intelligence to propose alternatives. Swiss group Firmenich, one of the world's leading flavour manufacturers, says recreating the sensation of beef relies not only on flavour, texture and colour, but also on how it responds to cooking and the way it feels in the mouth. "Finding a protein that resembles meat from a vegetable protein is highly complex," Emmanuel Butstraen, head of Firmenich's flavours unit, told AFP at the company's headquarters in Satigny outside Geneva. One of the toughest challenges is avoiding an unpleasant aftertaste.

A Swiss fragrance company is counting on artificial intelligence to help it perfect the plant-based burger. Firmenich, one of the world's leading flavor manufacturers, says recreating the sensation of beef relies not only on flavor, texture and color, but also on how it responds to cooking and the way it feels in the mouth. 'Finding a protein that resembles meat from a vegetable protein is highly complex,' Emmanuel Butstraen, head of Firmenich's flavors unit, told AFP. One of the toughest challenges is avoiding an unpleasant aftertaste--pea proteins tend to release bitterness, which the taste buds are quick to pick up, Butstraen noted. Vegetable proteins can give off hints of green apples or pears, an aftertaste of beans, bitterness or sourness, or even a feeling of dryness, said Jerome Barra, the company's innovation director.

Geneva-based Firmenich, the world's largest privately owned perfume and taste company, is using Microsoft-powered Artificial Intelligence to serve consumers' Food & Nutrition needs with speed, creativity and innovation. The 125 year old Swiss company opened its d-lab, or digital lab, in Lausanne in 2018. Led by Firmenich's purpose to create positive emotions to enhance wellbeing naturally, the d-lab's mission is to drive what Chief Digital & Information Officer, Eric Saracchi, calls "tech for good" through end to end value chain digital transformation. For Firmenich, this includes everything from collecting consumer insights through digital surveys to digital tracking of raw materials to ensure the most accurate and transparent supply chain traceability and optimizing plant safety. In February, Firmenich's Flavors Division began one of these global insights studies with a series of surveys of 15k people across 22 countries.

In the last year, the scent industry has undergone a quiet but significant transformation thanks to artificial intelligence: In August 2018, fragrance house Firmenich announced a partnership with Swiss university Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne to create a digital lab in order to study AI for fragrance product development. In October 2018, another major fragrance house, Symrise, worked with IBM to develop an AI and machine learning perfumer machine called Phylra. This past April, fragrance company Givaudan launched AI platform Carto to assist perfumers in scent creation. And finally, in July, fragrance subscription startup Scentbird launched a sub-brand called Confessions of a Rebel that used AI and customer data and reviews in the creation of its four debut fragrances. Historically, perfume creation has toed the line between art and science.