We are surrounded by scent. Take a whiff in any home or department store and there are traces of the fragrance industry — the clean linen scent of laundry detergents, or the sweet vanilla aroma of a candle.
Air fresheners are suffused with Hawaiian floral, or hints of a soft summer breeze. Luxury perfumes and colognes grace the wrists and necks of the elite, and clouds of cloying body spray shadow today’s youth. The fine fragrance industry alone is expected to hit $70 billion in revenue by 2022.
Most of these smells are engineered — synthesized in laboratories in complex processes. Professional perfumers, or “noses,” undergo years of training to compose intricate scents for fine perfumes. Working alongside them are chemists and chemical engineers, who also create smells for other consumer products.
In recent years, artificial intelligence (AI) has found its way into the fragrance industry. The union sometimes seems at odds with the world of scent, which is often tied to human emotion. Yet, as the industry continues to grow, fragrance scientists are increasingly incorporating novel AI technology, while striving to maintain scent design as an art form.
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