MUMBAI: The supply chain is getting a silicon makeover, but the human touch is staying put. Unilever is expanding its use of artificial intelligence, digital twins and connected data across its global supply chain as faster demand cycles, complex manufacturing and large-scale brand activations put fresh pressure on forecasting and logistics.
The shift was put to the test around the FIFA World Cup 2026, with 35 Unilever brands activated across more than 120 countries, supported by 180 limited-edition products. The supply chain had to move products across millions of retail locations, including major retailers and hundreds of thousands of smaller stores.
Vicky Cuthbert, Chief Product Supply Chain Officer for Personal Care at Unilever, said the company is moving towards an interconnected supply chain where AI and human expertise work together on forecasting, scenario planning and operational decisions.
The change is being driven by consumers moving faster. Unilever says demand cycles that once ran for months can now change within hours, requiring the company to develop, manufacture and replenish products more quickly.
The company has cut its concept-to-pilot timeline to 12 weeks and is using AI to sharpen demand and supply forecasts. Its Forecast Engine Utility generates a 104-week forecast every week across more than 5 million product-customer combinations in 40 markets.
Unilever is also connecting retail sales and forecast data with upstream material sourcing. In a pilot with Walmart in Mexico, the company reported more than 98 per cent on-shelf availability, alongside lower inventory and category growth.
AI is also moving onto the factory floor. At Unilever’s Hefei operation in China, the technology has contributed to an 8 per cent increase in overall equipment effectiveness and a 20 per cent reduction in waste.
The factory-to-consumer operation handles around 31,000 orders a day across more than 400 products. Unilever said the operation fulfils orders 75 per cent faster and has cut logistics costs by almost 25 per cent.
Digital twins are becoming another piece of the puzzle. These computer-based simulations allow Unilever to model manufacturing processes, test different scenarios and identify potential problems before they disrupt production.
Its Raeford, North Carolina factory, which contributed to products for the World Cup activation, uses digital twins to improve product quality and manufacturing throughput. Unilever reported a 20 per cent reduction in waste and a 10 per cent increase in capacity at the facility.
The company plans to deploy more than 40 AI-powered digital twins across its manufacturing network over the next 18 months, signalling a move towards more predictive rather than reactive factory operations.
The World Cup activation provided a particularly demanding test. Unilever had to coordinate sourcing, manufacturing and logistics for limited-edition products across multiple markets while anticipating demand spikes generated by campaigns running across social media, television, out-of-home and retail.
More than 50,000 creators globally were involved in the company’s World Cup campaigns.
One example was Rexona’s limited-edition ‘World Champions’ deodorants, which were produced and dispatched to Spain within days of the World Cup final, once the tournament winner was known.
The ability to move that quickly reflects the broader challenge facing consumer brands: marketing can create demand almost instantly, while manufacturing and distribution still have to catch up.
Unilever’s longer-term plan is therefore to connect these individual technologies rather than deploy AI as a collection of standalone tools. Its five-year partnership with Google Cloud is intended to create an enterprise-wide digital backbone linking data, insights and agentic workflows across business processes.
The bigger bet is not simply on machines doing more work, but on people and AI making decisions together. For Unilever, that combination is becoming central to navigating faster-moving demand, production constraints and disruptions across a supply chain that increasingly has to move at the speed of the consumer.