Unilever and Accenture Collaborate on Next Generation AI

December 05, 2023 at 07:59 AM EST

Accenture (NYSE: ACN) is joining forces with Unilever, the consumer goods multinational—whose 400+ brands are used by 3.4 billion people every day—as part of a strategic initiative to leverage Unilever's AI research and implementation of technologies that enhance productivity, drive efficiencies, and accelerate disruptive and AI-powered innovations at scale.

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Accenture is joining forces with Unilever, the consumer goods multinational—whose 400+ brands are used by 3.4 billion people every day—as part of a strategic initiative to leverage Unilever's AI research and implementation of technologies that enhance productivity, drive efficiencies, and accelerate disruptive and AI-powered innovations at scale. (Photo: Business Wire)

The work will kick-off from Unilever’s global AI Lab “Horizon3 Labs,” recently opened in Toronto—a city recognized for its concentration of AI expertise and home to one of Accenture’s six Gen AI studios in North America.

The two companies will explore new applications to scale generative AI; for example, assets from Accenture’s AI Navigator or its proprietary “switchboard,” which allows a user to select a combination of models to address the unique business context.

“This collaboration builds on our relationship of more than three decades with Unilever, which continues to raise the bar as a digital powerhouse and industry leader,” said Julie Sweet, chair and CEO, Accenture. “The combination of Horizon3 Labs’ disruptive innovation with Accenture’s deep expertise and strong ecosystem partnerships will help Unilever scale AI and generative AI more rapidly and responsibly across its business and discover new pathways to value.”

“We are excited about building on our long-standing partnership with Accenture to step up our innovation agenda and drive value for our consumers, retailers, and distributors. Horizon3 Labs is a unique platform for collaboration and co-creation, and we look forward to working with Accenture and other partners to take our investment in AI to a new level,” said Steve McCrystal, chief enterprise and technology officer, Unilever.

This initiative will leverage the industry solutions and accelerators within Accenture’s previously announced $3 billion investment in data and AI. As part of these efforts, Accenture will connect Unilever with its top data and AI experts, and help capitalize on Accenture’s ecosystem partnerships, ventures, and strategic investments within its Center for Advanced AI, which includes more than 1,450 pending and issued patents in Accenture’s AI solutions and learnings from more than 300 generative AI projects.

About Accenture

Accenture is a leading global professional services company that helps the world’s leading businesses, governments and other organizations build their digital core, optimize their operations, accelerate revenue growth and enhance citizen services—creating tangible value at speed and scale. We are a talent- and innovation-led company with 733,000 people serving clients in more than 120 countries. Technology is at the core of change today, and we are one of the world’s leaders in helping drive that change, with strong ecosystem relationships. We combine our strength in technology with unmatched industry experience, functional expertise and global delivery capability. We are uniquely able to deliver tangible outcomes because of our broad range of services, solutions and assets across Strategy & Consulting, Technology, Operations, Industry X and Accenture Song. These capabilities, together with our culture of shared success and commitment to creating 360° value, enable us to help our clients succeed and build trusted, lasting relationships. We measure our success by the 360° value we create for our clients, each other, our shareholders, partners, and communities. Visit us at www.accenture.com.

About Unilever

Unilever is one of the world’s leading suppliers of Beauty & Wellbeing, Personal Care, Home Care, Nutrition and Ice Cream products, with sales in over 190 countries and products used by 3.4 billion people every day. We have 127,000 employees and generated sales of €60.1 billion in 2022.

Our vision is to be the global leader in sustainable business and to demonstrate how our purpose-led, future-fit business model drives superior performance. We have a long tradition of being a progressive, responsible business.

The Unilever Compass, our global sustainable business strategy, is set out to help us deliver superior performance and drive sustainable and responsible growth, while aiming to:

improve the health of the planet;

improve people's health, confidence and wellbeing;

and contribute to a fairer and more socially inclusive world.

For more information about Unilever and our brands, please visit www.unilever.com.