Unilever, Google Cloud Seal 5-year AI Partnership to Transform Consumer Marketing

Unilever and Google Cloud have announced a five-year strategic partnership aimed at accelerating Unilever’s global business transformation through the deployment of advanced artificial intelligence, data and next-generation marketing capabilities.
The companies said the collaboration will help drive growth and desirability across Unilever’s global brand portfolio, including Dove, Vaseline and Hellmann’s, by using Google Cloud’s enterprise AI and data platforms to build new capabilities in brand discovery, measurement and AI-augmented marketing.
Unilever under the agreement will migrate its integrated data and cloud platform to Google Cloud to create what it described as an enterprise-wide, AI-first digital backbone designed to generate demand faster, convert data into actionable insights and respond to market shifts with greater agility.
The companies said the move will also support the development of agentic workflows, an intelligent systems capable of executing complex tasks across business processes as consumer journeys increasingly shift towards conversational and automated experiences.

Chief supply chain and operations officer at Unilever, Willem Uijen, said, “Technology has moved to the core of value creation at Unilever, as brands are increasingly discovered and chosen in environments shaped by AI, we must lead this shift.

“This collaboration with Google Cloud sets a new level in how technology can power commerce and growth in the fast-moving consumer goods industry, ensuring Unilever is agile, fit for the future, and equipped to unlock value at every level of the company”

However, for Google Cloud, the partnership represents a major push into the consumer packaged goods (CPG) sector, where data-driven marketing and automated decision-making are becoming critical to competitiveness.

Commenting, President, EMEA, at Google Cloud, Tara Brady, said the alliance goes beyond modernising legacy systems.

“In partnering with Unilever as it boldly reimagines its business processes, we are not just modernizing legacy systems; we are deploying our advanced models to create a system of intelligence that reasons, learns, and acts. This will set a new standard for agility and consumer engagement in the CPG sector,” she said.

The collaboration will be driven by three core pillars. The first is agentic commerce and marketing intelligence with both companies building next-generation marketing tools across brand discovery, conversion and performance measurement.

While the second pillar is an integrated data and cloud foundation, as Unilever transitions key enterprise applications and data platforms to Google Cloud to create a connected environment for scalable AI deployment across its value chain.

The third is advanced AI, which will fast-track Unilever’s adoption of emerging technologies by combining its industry expertise with Google’s AI capabilities to sustain long-term competitive advantage in the global CPG market.
Consequently, both companies noted that the partnership is expected to create a new model for how consumer brands are discovered and shopped, as the global retail landscape continues to shift toward AI-driven and automated experiences.