At Amazon's massive annual cloud computing conference, an unexpected star emerged not from a server rack, but from a fragrance lab. The company's AI-powered perfume booth reportedly drew massive crowds and hour-long waits, becoming one of the most popular attractions at the AWS Reinvent event in Las Vegas.
The Scent of Innovation: AI Meets Perfumery
While the AWS Reinvent conference typically focuses on complex cloud services for its roughly 60,000 attendees, this year's buzz centered on a unique experiential marketing stunt. According to a Reuters report, Amazon set up a 'Fragrance Lab' booth where attendees could get a custom-made perfume created using generative AI software.
Amazon clarified to Reuters that the scent lab was a marketing "gimmick," but one designed to demonstrate the versatile applications of its AI technology. The process involved attendees following voice instructions on a screen that utilized four different AI models, all developed by Amazon. These models generated a scent profile based on user input, which was then physically mixed by human perfume makers.
To create a personalized fragrance, the system prompted users to describe their favourite hobbies, preferred places, and other personal details. The AI then attempted to craft a scent matching the user's described mood and olfactory preferences. The booth offered a palette of 30 different scent notes, ranging from coffee and tobacco to jasmine, for the final blend.
Long Queues and Mixed Reactions from Attendees
The allure of a free, AI-crafted perfume proved irresistible. By the third day of the conference, the line for the Fragrance Lab remained consistently long, with over 70 people waiting at a time and delays stretching to an hour or more.
Reactions from those who endured the wait were varied. Peter Nikoloff, 37, who waited nearly two hours to be first in line, designed a fragrance with notes of mint, sandalwood, and sage for his wife. "Oh it was totally worth it," Nikoloff told Reuters, adding, "There's quite a lot of perfume here, for free."
However, not every experience met expectations. A 30-year-old nuclear power engineer identified as Walker told the AI he was nature-loving and creative. The resulting bamboo-and-mint blend, named "Sylvan Craft," felt "very feminine" to him. "It was pretty unimpressive: It just didn’t come out as I expected," he said, planning to gift it to his girlfriend instead.
Behind the Scenes: Human Craft in an AI Process
Despite the high-tech front end, human expertise remained crucial. The AI-generated recipes were brought to life by human perfumers Amazon brought in from France. Some of the uniquely named scents created included Alpine Reverie, Terra Venture, Metropol, and Tranquil Pulse.
A promotional website for the experience advertised a "uniquely curated" fragrance with descriptions like "rich base notes" or "ethereal top notes." The service, part of Amazon's Nova generative AI offerings, was showcased alongside more traditional conference sessions on cloud upgrades and data lakes, highlighting Amazon's push to make AI relatable and experiential.
This innovative booth successfully demonstrated that AI's potential extends far beyond data centers and code, tapping into the deeply personal and creative world of scent, and in the process, became the talk of the tech conference.
