Unilever partners with Accenture to scale AI digital twins globally

GLOBAL – Unilever has announced a multi-year partnership with Accenture to scale AI-enabled digital twins throughout its global manufacturing network, deploying next-generation technology designed to improve factory quality, boost operational efficiency, and enable faster responses to consumer demand. 

Digital twins function as virtual models of factory equipment and production lines, utilizing live data from physical systems on the shop floor to monitor and predict machine and process performance. 

By integrating these digital twins with AI-enabled insights and agentic capabilities, Unilever is providing manufacturing teams with advanced tools that enable earlier issue identification, faster scenario simulation, and smarter decision-making throughout the production cycle. 

Building on digital twins already in operation, Unilever plans to expand adoption over the next 18 months by creating more than 40 new digital twins while establishing a scalable blueprint for global rollout.

Adam Raeburn-James, Unilever’s Global VP for Digital Business Operations, emphasized that scaling AI across operations represents more than a technological shift—it is a commitment to superior products, sustainability, and empowering factory teams. 

He stated that through the partnership with Accenture to accelerate digital twins, Unilever is transforming innovation into measurable impact to create desirable brands for 3.7 billion consumers worldwide. 

Accenture is supporting Unilever in deploying industrial AI capabilities that use advanced analytics and AI agents to predict maintenance needs, improve performance, and help teams act faster, with the system progressively taking on certain adjustments automatically as it learns and employees gain confidence in its accuracy, all under human oversight.

Digital twins are already delivering tangible benefits across multiple Unilever sites worldwide. In Raeford, North Carolina, a digital twin powering production of iconic brands including Dove, Degree, and Axe predicts 95% of process flow restrictions in deodorant stick manufacturing, delivering a 20% reduction in waste and a 10% capacity uplift. 

In Haldia, India, dedicated to powder detergents such as Surf and Sunlight, an energy twin optimizes fan speeds, temperature setpoints, and moisture controls, achieving tangible reduction in thermal energy consumption over two years while supporting Unilever’s scope 1 and 2 climate targets. In Poznan, Poland, home to brands like Knorr and Hellmann’s, a digital twin stabilizes viscosity variation in mayonnaise while reducing minor stoppages by up to 20% and cutting waste by nearly 30%. 

At Gandhidham, India, one of Unilever’s largest personal care sites in South Asia, a digital twin helped reduce quality defects by 30% over four years through real-time control recommendations. In Cu Chi, Vietnam, where Unilever produces liquid home care products such as OMO laundry detergent, an intelligent mixer powered by an AI digital twin optimizes raw materials dosing, preventing overuse and delivering 1–2% savings in premium ingredients while maintaining superior product quality.

Unilever’s operational excellence, efficiency, and sustainable growth across its supply chain have been recognized by the World Economic Forum’s Global Lighthouse Network, where Unilever holds the highest number of designations in the consumer goods sector. 

This manufacturing AI partnership with Accenture builds on previously announced efforts to scale next-generation technology across business operations, including identifying and testing new AI solutions through the AI Horizon3 Lab in Toronto, Canada, demonstrating Unilever’s continued commitment to innovation, technology, and collaboration in transforming the consumer goods industry.

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