Unilever Anchors AI Strategy to Business Outcomes, Not Technology

Unilever is leveraging artificial intelligence to streamline operations, speed up product development and drive consumer engagement. The multinational consumer goods firm has made a deliberate choice to embed AI within its broader business strategy rather than treating it as a standalone technology initiative.

Establishing measurable outcomes upfront, connecting AI capabilities to strategic business goals and pinpointing which problems the technology will solve creates alignment across the organization and prevents fragmentation, according to Allen Bates, senior vice president and chief digital and information officer at Unilever North America.

We don't have an AI strategy; we have a business strategy that's powered by AI. That's a fundamental shift in how we start with the problem [and] start with the outcomes.

Allen Bates, SVP, chief digital and information officer, Unilever North America

The approach is already delivering tangible results. Unilever has seen improvements in digital commerce channels and achieved a 10% boost in production capacity at its manufacturing facility in Raeford, North Carolina through AI-driven digital twins, Bates noted. The company has also deployed AI to accelerate the creation of marketing content and strengthen brand presence during major events, including the FIFA World Cup. Its Beauty AI Studio system managed the entire content production workflow and enabled the company to generate assets 30% faster, CEO Fernando Fernandez disclosed during the company's second quarter 2026 earnings presentation in July.

To support its AI ambitions, Unilever is transitioning enterprise applications and data infrastructure to Google Cloud under a five-year agreement designed to establish an AI-first technical backbone. The company is also exploring frontier capabilities in agent technology alongside Microsoft.

Where AI was previously more of an assistant, I'm seeing it now become somewhat of a teammate where it can act, take some data and create a PowerPoint, take that next step. That, to me, is really exciting, where you get out of the transactional assistant mode and into more of a teammate mode.

Allen Bates

Data and Change Management as Foundations

Achieving Unilever's AI objectives requires a robust underlying infrastructure and integration with the company's business and workforce strategies, Bates emphasized.

Data serves as the critical starting point for scaling AI effectively across the organization. Bates stressed the symbiotic relationship: "AI loves context, context loves data, that's where we start."

Unilever has invested in developing reusable data assets that enable different departments to build on existing work rather than beginning anew as AI expands throughout the company. Documenting and sharing knowledge as AI becomes more widely accessible has proven valuable for transferring insights across geographic regions.

Change management represents another essential component as organizations navigate the AI era, particularly as technology leaders including chief information officers and chief digital and information officers shift from managing IT delivery to serving as strategic business advisors.

Everything we build is in a multidisciplinary team. Change is everyone's job, in my view.

Allen Bates

As Unilever scales AI deployment further, Bates identified the most promising opportunities: enhancing human capabilities and reimagining business processes. He cautioned that applying technology to flawed workflows does not solve underlying problems. "Technology on a bad process is still a bad process," he said.