Increasingly erratic demand shifts and large-scale brand activations are putting stress on organising, manufacturing and logistics. With AI-based enhancements in manufacturing and supply chain, Unilever is progressively turning to artificial intelligence, digital twins and connected data throughout its global supply chain.
The company is moving toward a more interconnected operating system where AI and human expertise collaborate in predictive analytics and scenario planning as well as daily decision-making, says Unilever’s chief product supply chain officer for personal care, Vicky Cuthbert.
It is not just an idea. Consumer demand cycles have diminished from months to hours, Unilever said, so it must accelerate the pace at which it develops, makes and restocks products. The company has reduced concept-to-pilot timelines to roughly 12 weeks and executes weekly forecasts across 40 markets with more than 5 million product-customer combinations. The model is said to have delivered over 98% on-shelf availability in a trial run with Walmart in Mexico, while decreasing inventory and growing categories.
Unilever is also working on AI-based enhancements in manufacturing and supply chain. In China, its factory in Hefei utilized AI to improve the efficiency of equipment by 8% and minimise waste by 20%. The site handles around 31,000 orders a day across over 400 products, and the company reported it now completes orders 75% faster with logistics costs down by nearly 25%.
The system is also benefiting from digital twins. These digital models of factories enable teams to model changes and spot obstacles before they hit production. Unilever said its Raeford factory in North Carolina that helped manufacture goods for the FIFA World Cup activation made use of digital twins to optimise quality and output, thereby cutting waste by 20% and increasing capacity by 10%. The company plans to deploy over 40 AI-powered digital twins throughout its manufacturing network in the coming 18 months.
On the subject of the World Cup, the FIFA World Cup 2026 activation was a big test of these capabilities. Unilever reported that it activated 35 brands in more than 120 countries and launched 180 limited-edition products. That meant managing material sourcing, manufacturing and logistics throughout millions of retail locations, right from major retailers to hundreds of thousands of smaller stores. The campaigns also took place on social media, in-store, and out-of-home as well as on television, with over 50,000 creators worldwide. The company pointed to limited-edition World Champions deodorants under the Rexona brand that were made and shipped to Spain in the period after the FIFA World Cup final when the winner became known.
The longer-term strategy of Unilever is to go beyond AI in individual supply chain functions and to build a much more connected digital infrastructure. The company said its 5-year partnership with Google Cloud aims to create an enterprise-wide digital foundation that connects data, drives insights and powers agentic workflows that span business processes.
For Unilever, the change is more than just adding more AI tools. The bigger opportunity is to restructure processes so that employees and artificial intelligence systems can function collaboratively more efficiently, Cuthbert said.
The combination of human judgement, AI-driven analysis and digital simulation is expected to enable the supply chain of the company to react more quickly to shifts in demand, manufacturing limitations, and outside forces while supporting growth of its global consumer brands.