At AWS re:Invent, Amazon’s AI-powered perfume booth outshines cloud demos as thousands line up to bottle custom scents—and test the quirks of generative AI.
Amazon used its annual AWS re:Invent conference this week to showcase new AI capabilities for its SageMaker service. But the breakout hit wasn’t a model-tuning tool or cloud modernization session — it was perfume.
The unlikely star attraction, dubbed the Fragrance Lab, drew lines stretching more than an hour as thousands of software engineers queued for a chance to generate bespoke scents using Amazon’s Nova generative AI system. At a conference built on data lakes and container migrations, this booth smelled suspiciously like fun.
Peter Nikoloff, a 37-year-old federal IT worker, camped out for nearly two hours to be first in line. His custom fragrance — a mint-sandalwood-sage blend — was, he said, “totally worth it.” The allure: free perfume, crafted by AI and finished by human perfumers flown in from France.
The scent-making experience relies on four Amazon-built AI models that interpret user prompts about personality, preferences, and mood. Nova then maps those descriptors onto a palette of 30 base notes, producing creations with names like Alpine Reverie, Metropol, and Tranquil Pulse. Human perfumers assemble the final formula on site.
Amazon admits the perfume lab is a gimmick — but a purposeful one. It’s meant to show just how far generative AI can stretch, even as the company works to counter market perceptions that it trails competitors in the AI race.
Not everyone left enchanted. Anthony Walker, a nuclear engineer, waited three hours for a Nova-designed cologne called Sylvan Craft — a bamboo-mint blend he diplomatically described as “very feminine.” He plans to give it to his girlfriend.
Also Read: How Explainable AI Builds Trust in Data Decisions
“I wanted something earthy or nutty,” he said. “AI didn’t quite get the vibe.”
Still, the crowds haven’t thinned. At a gathering where 60,000 attendees pay up to $2,100 to learn about cloud architecture, nothing is drawing interest like the booth proving that artificial intelligence can just as easily bottle a fragrance as build a model.
