AI Takes Center Stage at the 2025 LVMH Innovation Award Ceremony

The 2025 LVMH Innovation Award Ceremony, held during the annual Viva Tech fair in Paris, showcased the transformative power of artificial intelligence (AI) in the luxury industry. As brands increasingly seek to optimize the consumer journey through hyper-personalization and enhance content creation efficiencies, AI has emerged as a pivotal force driving innovation.

Celebrating Innovation in Luxury

LVMH, a leader in the luxury sector, announced the winners of its ninth Innovation Award, emphasizing its commitment to nurturing talent that shapes the future of luxury. This year’s competition adopted a streamlined format, focusing on specific projects within the LVMH ecosystem, with a clear emphasis on return on investment (ROI). Three prize categories—Best Impact, Best Business, and Most Promising—recognized outstanding solutions developed in collaboration with various Maisons.

Best Business Prize: Kahoona and Dior

The Best Business Prize was awarded to Kahoona, a U.S.-based startup, for its innovative collaboration with Dior. Kahoona’s real-time predictive audience segmentation solution revolutionized personalized customer experiences by analyzing anonymized online visitor data. According to LVMH, this technology took customer engagement to unprecedented levels, demonstrating the potential of AI to drive business growth and operational transformation.

How Kahoona’s AI Works

CEO Gal Rapoport explained that Kahoona’s AI technology employs pattern recognition to understand customer intent, demographics, and price points. By interpreting "digital body language," the AI optimizes customer journeys, ensuring that each interaction is tailored to individual preferences. This level of personalization not only enhances customer satisfaction but also fosters brand loyalty.

Best Impact Prize: Genesis and Moët Hennessy

The Best Impact Prize went to French startup Genesis for its collaboration with Moët Hennessy. Genesis developed a data-driven digital tool designed to measure, monitor, and improve soil health, aligning with LVMH’s commitment to sustainability. This innovative solution has significant potential for replication within the LVMH ecosystem, showcasing how technology can advance environmental stewardship in the luxury sector.

Most Promising Prize: OMI and Guerlain

OMI, a content creation studio, received the Most Promising Prize for its partnership with Guerlain. Co-founder and CEO Hugo Borensztein described OMI as a “French pioneer in 3D AI,” offering a faster and more cost-effective method for generating high-quality visuals from 3D models. OMI’s collaboration extends to L’Oréal Group, where it contributes to CREAITECH, L’Oréal’s Generative AI content platform.

The Rise of AI in Content Creation

AI has transitioned from a mere trend to an essential component of the luxury industry, particularly in content creation. During Viva Tech, L’Oréal announced a partnership with NVIDIA to harness AI across various aspects of beauty. This collaboration aims to leverage the NVIDIA AI Enterprise platform for rapid development and deployment of AI solutions, enhancing personalized marketing and advertising to improve consumer engagement.

Showcasing Innovations at the LVMH Dreamscape Pavilion

The winning solutions, along with those from 12 other finalists, were presented at the LVMH Dreamscape pavilion at Viva Tech. Louis Vuitton unveiled a groundbreaking innovation developed by the Paris-based studio Ok C’est Cool, which created a proprietary AI-powered content creation tool. This tool utilizes low-rank adaptation (LoRA) to teach the AI to replicate intricate brand details, enabling the generation of numerous images in a single day while maintaining high fidelity.

Preserving Data Sovereignty

Ok C’est Cool co-founder Marc Horgues emphasized the importance of internalizing AI solutions to preserve data sovereignty. While open-source technology has democratized basic content reproduction, LVMH demands excellence that goes beyond standard practices, ensuring that all produced content meets the luxury Group’s high standards.

Collaborations Beyond the Pavilion

Louis Vuitton also showcased its partnership with Danish startup Rigsters, specializing in 3D scanning technology. Meanwhile, Rimowa introduced its collaboration with French startup Solaya, focusing on 2D and 3D content creation for its pre-loved RE-CRAFTED luggage. This innovative approach combines AI and Gaussian Splatting to produce high-quality assets using simple smartphone scans, making the process accessible to anyone within the company.

At Bulgari, the Italian firm Maize presented its amalgamated AI technology for large language models (LLMs). This bespoke solution optimizes the brand’s written content, ensuring tone of voice integrity across all communication mediums.

The Future of AI in Luxury

In the AI Startup Village, part of the extended LVMH family, the Gen AI-powered 3D asset management platform Power XYZ announced its collaboration with affordable luxury accessories brand Polène, backed by investment from the LVMH/Arnault family-owned fund L Catterton. This partnership highlights the growing influence of AI in the luxury sector, paving the way for innovative solutions that enhance both consumer experiences and operational efficiencies.

As AI continues to evolve, its integration into the luxury industry promises to reshape how brands engage with consumers, optimize operations, and uphold the standards of excellence that define luxury. The 2025 LVMH Innovation Award Ceremony not only celebrated current achievements but also set the stage for a future where AI plays an even more central role in luxury innovation.