Unilever has strengthening its partnership with Accenture to simplify its digital operations and apply generative AI to drive efficiencies across the global business, at a time when it is facing increased pressure from Greenpeace over its environmental record.
The packaged goods giant has been working with Accenture since the 1990s but this new, multi-year deal builds on a programme which was first launched in December last year to support the multinational’s AI implementation by enhancing productivity, driving efficiencies and accelerating innovation.
Since then, Unilever has focused efforts on identifying and testing new AI concepts, designs and projects from its Horizon3 Labs, and based in Toronto. It already has 500 AI applications in place.
Unilever says it will now work with Accenture to establish the foundation on which to set a new industry standard in GenAI powered productivity, including scaling use cases that have been shown to be effective in delivering cost reductions and operational efficiencies.
It will implement Accenture’s GenWizard platform to accelerate its technology and digital product development. The gen AI platform has more than 350 patents and ready-to-apply tools and frameworks that it is claimed work together to provide a comprehensive solution for any given technology business objective.
Unilever chief executive Hein Schumacher said: “As AI matures and becomes increasingly intelligent and intuitive, we see so much more potential. Now, as part of our action plan to deliver faster growth, drive productivity, and dial up performance, we’re going deeper.
“With the help of Accenture’s world-class tools and capabilities, we will be able to analyse where and how AI can have the highest transformational impact and deliver the greatest returns.”
Accenture chair and CEO Julie Sweet added: “This next exciting chapter in our decades-long collaboration with Unilever will raise the bar on how enterprises can scale GenAI to power productivity and value at speed.
“Accenture’s GenWizard platform will enable Unilever to create a full spectrum of targeted GenAI solutions across its business that can realise efficiencies and cost savings, uncover new ways of working and ultimately help drive competitive advantage.”
The move comes as Greenpeace has stepped up its action against the company in protest over its alleged failure to tackle plastic pollution and its recent sustainability rollback.
A total of 16 activists have been arrested so far this week for blockading the entrances to Unilever House, in Blackfriars, London.
Nine of the activists, who had locked themselves onto barricades made from giant Dove deodorants and a subverted ‘Dead Dove’ logo, were cut out by police with angle grinders and arrested for locking-on under new powers in the Public Order Act – the first time Greenpeace activists have been arrested for the new offence. A further 17 activists currently remain locked-on.
The other seven activists were also arrested for scaling the walls of the building and affixing a huge 13m x 8m canvas to the facade. The artwork displays an advertising subversion featuring a young girl peeling back Dove’s iconic ‘Real Beauty’ branding to reveal real examples of the toxic plastic waste churned out by the brand.
Greenpeace UK co-executive director Will McCallum said: “The arrest of these activists goes to show how big polluters like Unilever are hiding behind the Government’s new gagging laws to carry on with their destructive behaviour. It is them, not peaceful protesters, that should be held to account.
“Whether it’s devastating flooding or toxic fumes from waste burning, the billions of pieces of plastic waste they’re pumping into the world are exacting a toll on communities far from this London office. There’s no ‘Real Beauty’ in the real harm Dove and Unilever are causing.
“Unilever must stop selling plastic sachets now, commit to phasing out single-use plastic within a decade and advocate for this same level of ambition at the final round of UN Global Plastics Treaty negotiations in November.”
The action is the latest escalation in Greenpeace’s ongoing campaign against the corporate giant and comes after the announcement of a major rollback of its plastic reduction targets earlier this year.
A Greenpeace International report released late last year claimed that Unilever was the largest corporate seller of the super-polluting plastic sachets, selling the equivalent of 1700 a second. An estimated 6.4 billion sachets were produced by Unilever signature brand Dove alone in 2022, making up over 10% of Unilever’s total sachets sales.
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