CANNES, France, June 17, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- SK-II, global prestige skincare brand, announced today at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity that it will be partnering with Soul Machines, a ground-breaking company re-imagining how humans connect with machines, to create the world’s first autonomously animated digital influencer: YUMI.
As SK-II’s first digital brand face, YUMI is an integral part of SK-II’s ongoing transformation journey to connect with a new generation of consumers who are yearning for more meaningful experiences with the brands they know and trust. Using Google Dialogflow as its natural language platform, YUMI is capable of interacting as a human would and will not only provide beauty advice but also help consumers better understand their skin and guide them on their journey to skin transformation with PITERA™ Essence.
YUMI was introduced to the world by Soul Machines co-founders, Mark Sagar and Greg Cross at the Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity.
“We are thrilled to work with innovative companies and brands like Procter & Gamble and SK-II, who are embracing technology to humanize brands at scale,” said Greg Cross, co-founder and Chief Business Officer of Soul Machines. “YUMI will become a trusted resource to those who interact with her. Customers will immediately notice how easy the Soul Machines digital humans are to converse with and relate to once they spend time interacting with YUMI.”
“YUMI is more than a digital influencer. She is a digital human capable of interacting and engaging in ways technology hasn’t been able to do until now,” said Sandeep Seth, Chief Executive Officer, Global SK-II. “YUMI personifies our goal to combine technology and creativity to benefit customers. She provides the warmth and connection of human touch in the form of a digital experience to make the overall skincare experience at home and in store more enjoyable and compelling. We’re looking forward to customers being able to turn to her for skincare and beauty questions at any time of the day or night.”
ABOUT SK-II
For more than 38 years, SK-II has touched the lives of millions of women around the world through skin and life transformation. The fascinating story behind SK-II began with a quest to understand why elderly sake brewers had wrinkled faces, but extraordinarily soft and youthful-looking hands. These hands were in constant contact with the sake fermentation process. It took years of research for scientists to isolate the miracle ingredient Pitera™, a naturally-derived liquid from the yeast fermentation process. Since then, SK-II with Pitera™ has become a special secret shared by celebrities all over the world such as Chloe Grace Moretz, Behati Prinsloo Levine, Tangwei, Ni Ni, Chun Xia, Haruka Ayase and Kasumi Arimura and Naomi Watanabe. For the latest news and in-depth information, please visit http://www.sk-ii.com.
ABOUT SOUL MACHINES
Soul Machines is a ground-breaking, high-tech company of AI researchers, neuroscientists, psychologists, artists, and innovative thinkers, re-imagining how we connect with machines. The company brings technology to life by creating incredibly lifelike, emotionally responsive, artificial humans with personality and character that allow machines to talk to us face-to-face. Their vision is to humanize artificial intelligence to better humanity. Soul Machines is now deploying the world’s first digital humans with some of the biggest corporate brands in the world in Banking and Finance, Software and Technology, Automotive, Healthcare, Energy, and Education industries. For more about Soul Machines, visit www.soulmachines.com
For more information, please contact
Shuqi Fu, Senior Brand Communications Manager, SK-II
fu.s.2@pg.com
O: 81286610
Alyssa Ross, Soul Machines
media@soulmachines.com
Phone: +17322219036