The world's first fully digital hair-color customization machine has received another accolade: a 2025 Artificial Intelligence Award (AiA).
LG CHI Color Master Factory, an in-salon digital lab that provides exact formulas and techniques for more than 30K hair color shades, took the prize in the category of Beauty & Wellness at the AiAs. The recent awards ceremony in Dubai recognized groundbreaking global contributions that merge AI-driven innovation, consumer well-being, and next-generation product development across 15 categories.
Dr. Farouk Shami, chairman and founder of Farouk Systems, Inc. and the CHI and BioSilk hair-care brands, calls the award an incredible honor.
"Innovation has always been at the heart of CHI," he says, "and this award reflects our ongoing mission to lead the industry with safer, smarter, and more advanced solutions for professionals and consumers worldwide."
Created by Shami and LG engineers, the patented LG CHI Color Master Factory was designed to support beauty artistry by offering more than 30K recommended formulas with the ability to create unlimited custom shades with exact precision.
Powered by artificial intelligence, the system ensures consistency, efficiency, and creative control by:
- Showing clients what their color will look like using simulation mode;
- Creating unlimited color formulations: semi-permanent, demi-permanent, permanent, gray coverage, lift & tone up to three levels, and tint back;
- Mixing and dispensing hair color formulas in less than two minutes;
- Formulating directly from the color dispenser or remotely from anywhere in the salon using the app; and
- Offering a 30 percent drop in waste of color formulas and packaging by reducing over-mixing.
As a hairdresser-turned-international pioneer in professional beauty, Shami has dedicated his career to transforming the industry through innovation, safer standards, and scientific advancement.
In 1997, during a trip to Italy, Shami discovered the benefits of ceramic heat, observing how pizza baked on ceramic-maintained moisture. Realizing the potential application for hair, he returned home inspired, leading to the launch of the Original CHI Ceramic Flat Iron, the first of its kind in the beauty industry. This breakthrough forever changed professional hairstyling technology.
The AiAs are presented by media, marketing, and event production company M.M.M International and chaired by renowned media figure Wassim Mandil.