Delightable

Over the past few years, the beauty product market has seen an explosion of choice. Overwhelmed and confused, customers can stall in their decision-making. A Wellington company has created a digital solution for beauty brands to gather intel and help customers make easy and informed choices. 

Whether at the sleek beauty counter of a department store or online, you are met with a cornucopia of choices. Beauty products have a huge variety of scents, specialties, and price points. Deciding what is right for your skin type and what aroma suits you can be mind-boggling. Madeleine and Ankit Patel have developed an AI platform to take some of that burden from you. 

With Delightable, customers can scan a QR code in store or visit a beauty brand’s website to get personalised recommendations. “A widget will appear and will start asking you questions about what your needs are”, says Madeleine. As you talk, ‘the concierge’ nails down what products will best suit you. “A lot of chatbot technology is logic-and-rule-based and has preset ideas that lead down only certain avenues. We’ve built an entirely customised system that’s personalised. Delightable helps create a conversational experience.” 

A pilot programme for Delightable rolled out across 55 Farmers stores in July 2026. The first beauty product collaborator was skincare powerhouse Trilogy Natural Products Ltd. The product is also being rolled out across several other e-commerce brands. “The plan is to move from skincare into fragrance, hair care, and supplements.” Delightable can be a one-stop help for any beauty product. “We are currently working on voice-activated tech so a user can talk to the concierge.” 

Madeleine met her business partner and now husband, Ankit, at a data screening agency “Essentially, my job at the time was asking how marketing could help a customer make decisions.” In 2023, they launched a fragrance brand called Speak. Eight perfumes were created, and the couple developed software capable of matching a customer with the right scent. That platform was the basis for Delightable. Now Speak has been sidelined while the pair concentrate on growing the software’s reach. This has been aided by WellingtonNZ, which connected them with Research and Development grants, legal support via Regional Business Partners, and student grants. 

By Christmas 2026, they expect to have launched across all beauty product genres, with fragrance being of particular interest. “The nose stops working after a few sprays of different perfumes — Delightable allows the customer to narrow down choice before beginning the selection.” There is also now a vast array of scents in the marketplace. Sales assistants can’t be experts across every bottle. Delightable will be able to recommend why this product suits your skin type, why other customers like it, and what else pairs well with it. “Fragrance is a tricky business, so we’re looking forward to helping customers make the right choice.”