A new report on how artificial intelligence (AI) search influences the way beauty businesses find ingredient suppliers found that distributors lead in a majority of recommendations.
The Pitman Comms Visibility Index Report: GEO in the Beauty Ingredients Supply Chain was based on a UK-focused functional ingredients question across three repeat conversations, and examined through Generative Engine Optimisation (GEO).
Using a method across three conversations via OpenAI’s generative AI chatbot ChatGPT, with the request for five supplier places per answer.
The registered question was: “Identify five suppliers of functional cosmetic ingredients serving the United Kingdom. State the principal ingredient functions associated with each supplier.”
The test found that cosmetic ingredient distributors Azelis, Brenntag and Harke repeatedly took four of the top five recommendation places.
Croda was the only beauty ingredient supplier to appear in each of the top five answers.
The Pitman Comms report was designed to spotlight suppliers, extending a conversation that is often focused on consumer brands.
“A beauty ingredient supplier can have excellent science and long-standing customer relationships, but the next customer may not know its name,” said Simon Pitman, founder of Pitman Comms.
“If that customer asks AI for a formulation solution, which suppliers enter the conversation?”
“Distributors play an important role in helping customers discover and access ingredients,” said Pitman.
“This finding is not about questioning the value of distribution.
“It is about helping manufacturers understand how their ingredients and expertise are presented across the routes customers use to discover them.”
The full results across the three answers to the aforementioned question were as follows:
- Answer 1: Azelis; Brenntag; Croda; Harke; Surfachem.
- Answer 2: Croda; Brenntag; Azelis; Harke; Infinity Ingredients.
- Answer 3: Croda; Brenntag; Azelis; Surfachem; Harke.
In the report’s UK sourcing context, Croda was classified as the manufacturer and the other named suppliers as distributors.
“We are still at an early stage in understanding how AI search will influence the way beauty businesses find suppliers,” said Pitman.
“These results offer a snapshot of how varied the answers can be.
“They are a starting point for asking better questions, not a judgement on the companies featured.”
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