PegaWorld 2025 Unilever keynote: Transforming Tomorrow, Today: Unilever's Path to the Autonomous Enterprise

Good morning everyone. I'm Steph Louis and I'm responsible for developer success and engagement. As Alan just mentioned, agents in AI are coming together in ways we never imagined. And you know, a key to that success is all of you. The community of developers, architects, analysts. Blueprint is changing the way we all come together to build software. We all have the opportunity to be groundbreakers, and I am so excited about this next chapter for Pega Community, so please come see me in the Innovation Hub to learn more. And speaking of groundbreakers, I have the opportunity to introduce you to a true groundbreaker who is driving large scale digital transformation at one of the world's largest companies. So please join me in welcoming to the stage, Unilever's Head of Digital and Technology Customer Operations, Francis Castro. Thank you very much, Steph. Thank you for the invitation. It's such a pleasure and honor to be here to share our story with you and with this fantastic audience. Hello, PegaWorld. I hope you're enjoying the sessions. I hope you find a lot of intriguing, provocative conversations on AI in the next few days. Really a pleasure to be here to share our story, how we pursue the autonomous enterprise. We are thrilled. Francis, I had no idea how much Unilever impacts my everyday life. But before we dive in, can you share with everyone a little bit about yourself and Unilever? For sure. Let me share a little bit about me. As maybe some of you may notice, I'm Brazilian, so Francis Castro, let's start with that. Proudly Brazilian, father of Bruna and Raul, married to Barbara. People that know me know that I'm a big fan of Formula One stuff. Big fan. So I woke up 5:45 yesterday just to watch the race.

Big fan of Lewis Hamilton. Didn't went really well for us, for Hamilton yesterday, but okay. Next time, next time. But let's talk about Unilever, right. Let's talk about our journey. So, Unilever. We are a consumer goods company, Steph. Our purpose is to brighten everyday life for all. And when I say for all, Steph, I really mean it. So we are really proud and honored to serve 3.4 billion consumers every day. Honored to be in their houses. So. If you are washing your hands in India with Lifebuoy, or if you're cleaning your house, and in UK, where I live, preparing for a nice dinner with some family and friends. If you are now preparing a nice sandwich...now I'm from Brazil. It's maybe 2:00 in Brazil right now. Preparing a nice sandwich with Hellmann's mayo. Or maybe you got a nice shower in the morning. Used your Dove to be fresh here on the stage. Wow. You were among all those 3.4 billion consumers. And I'm pretty much sure in the audience. Yes, we have others here as well. And we operate with 190 countries with our 30 power brands. So that's in a nutshell what we do. Unilever. So 3.4 billion, I think that's about half the planet in 190 countries. That's almost all of them. So that's quite the scale. What does that mean for customer operations. Indeed. So how do we serve those consumers. Right. So we have partners our retailers. So across the world we serve small retailers, small shops. The bakery that my family used to have that is in Brazil, or an online retailer like Amazon or a big retailer like for food, like Walmart here, Target here in the US, distributors that serves other small stores. They are all customers, we call them customers of Unilever. And they are almost 2.6 million across the globe. So we serve them so they can serve the consumers across the globe. That's the scale that we have. And I think that both you and Unilever have been doing this for quite some time. Yeah. Well, I think I don't look like... maybe the audience will judge or not, but I'm doing this for 25 years in the company right now.

But Unilever is more than 100 years in the market. So you see this beautiful ad from one of our first products, Sunlight Soap, invented by the Lever Brothers, which started the company, and my favorite brand in Unilever, Dove, which I think is fantastic, amazing. Steph, 100 years in the markets in 190 countries. Obviously that creates a lot of complexity. We've been quite successful for sure, but it created a lot of fragmentation. Manual tasks. Imagine 100 ways of doing things differently, right? And that's what's preventing us to keep going, to grow. And what we wanted to change, that complexity is what we wanted to change. We want to simplify, consolidate, accelerate that growth for our customers. That's what our strategy is coming from. Well, and I'm very familiar with how Pega can cut complexity. What does that specifically look like for Unilever? I will give you an example. But before I do that, let me talk about the vision, what we want to create. We want to be the supplier number one for our customers in every market that we serve. And let me tell you something, Steph. Wow, we are progressing. Good progress on that. In 70% of our markets. We are there in the top third group, which is really good. We are proud of that. In six of them we are actually the number one. The UK is a good example, so we are actually the number one for our customers. Told by them, not told by Francis. But we want to be there for all of those 2.6 million, right? That's the vision. That's the strategy. But now let me give you an example on how the customer experience felt and why we need to change, why we are pursuing this change, transformation and going to the autonomous enterprise. We are here in Vegas. But let me change a little bit the scenario. Okay. I'm going to transport you, Steph, to Brazil or maybe to Indonesia. Now, Steph, you are a store owner.

You're a retailer owner in Indonesia, in Jakarta. Okay. We just launched a new Dove deodorant. We believe it's going to be a success with the consumers in your neighborhood. So we engage with you, and we agree to run a promotion in your store for this new product, this innovation. So you put this beautiful island of Dove deodorant in your store, and it's a massive success with your consumers, with your neighborhood. Fantastic job there. So then you come to us and look. Now you need to claim your incentive because that's an agreement. You're running a promotion with us. In some cases, in some markets that was not really a brilliant experience because remember, 100 years, 100 ways of doing different things, 300 systems in this space, a lot of complexity, manual work, manual approvals, legacy systems interacting with each other, which sometimes you understand may not be the best thing. So the experience was not that great. That's what we wanted to change. We need to simplify it. We need to really harmonize this and provide the best customer experience for Steph. The shop owner in Jakarta. I do want the best experience, but what made Pega specifically the right tool for the job? Great question. So I believe most of us here have seen this picture, right? The situational layer that the architecture of Pega provides to us. So what was the opportunity here? Simplification, right? Simplification. Harmonization. Consolidation. We wanted to get using the enterprise layer to create a new platform a new global process model for us. So in the specific example that I'm giving. So you're claiming a promotion. That's part of what we call the order to cash. So on top of that enterprise layer a global process model, we model the order to cash process across the globe. And that allowed us something that is very important. And I think the audience may recognize usability.

So instead of now creating new applications, every single market that we operate, we can use components. And that's super important. That drives that simplification. But finally, wow, you're operating in Jakarta. You have a store there. The trading environment is different right from the trading environment here in Vegas. From the trading environment in Brazil where I come from. That's why we needed to cater for those regional variations. If you are big retailer like Walmart or if you're a small retailer like Steph in Jakarta, you're going to trade differently because you're serving maybe a different population, different consumers. It's totally different. We want to cater for that, but not to create new complexity. Keeping the concepts of the Layer Cake here, keeping the concept of the global process model, but allowing those variations. That's what made Pega a great, great partner for us to simplify all of that. I love that, that example really brings the Layer Cake to life, where you've got the shared recipe layer and a little bit of local flavor on top. Yeah, I would like to think about an ice cream layer as well. It could be cake, but could be ice cream. Fantastic layer of Magnum or Ben and Jerry ice cream on that. That may just really improve the customer experience. I love an ice cream cake too. But how did that impact your speed to market? Okay. Come back. What is important for us we wanted to be the supplier number one. So let me give you a couple of real examples on how this transformation impacted our customers. Your new owner. Your new shop owner that wants to trade with Unilever. So globally we reduce in 67% the time to onboard a new customer. How this is important? You want to run now a promotion with us. You onboard a facet, you're good to go, order and then good to go. Second element. Okay. Now you I onboarded you in our system. So you are a partner of Unilever.

You make your first order. Steph, as a retailer you certainly know that the most basic thing for any retailer, no matter if you are a small one or a big retailer like Walmart, is deliver what I order in the quantities that I ordered, the time that I ordered. It sounds very basic, right? But actually it's not. Believe me, it's not that simple. So here in North America, that's a real example. We reducing 31% touches in orders. What does that mean? It means that if we are not touching is because your order is flowing through. The moment you order to the moment you receive in your distribution center or in your store, going in through and you are satisfied for that. Finally. You run that promotion with us in your store in Jakarta in Indonesia. 77% reduction on the claims time resolution. What does that mean? You run the promotion. We reduce the time for me to pay you your incentive in 77%, which makes you ready to go for the next one. So we have a new innovation here that we want you to run the promotion with us, Steph. That's real improvement for our customers. That's real customer experience. I love it because I do want to get paid pretty quickly. So I do like that and those results are undeniable. But I know that it's been a journey. So what lessons could you share with everyone about your journey? Okay, look, I have just four real simple examples, but for us they were very powerful. And remember, we're still in the journey. First thing, think big. You need to have an aspiration, right? Our aspiration is for that 2.6 million be the supplier number one. So we can serve better the 3.4 billion consumers across the globe. All of you watching are here. So start thinking big. But you cannot deliver that on day one, right? So start small. The market, the first customer. The second customer. The first market. The second market. And then go on that. So be agile on this. Secondly. Well, I told you hundreds of systems, manual integrations, legacies.

You need to choose the right technology because otherwise you may have the big aspiration, but you don't have the capacity to execute that, right? That's where Pega came. So right technology to resolve. And I love what Alan said before. So the right AI to solve the problem. So we will face that. Right technology, right AI to solve the problems that you have on hand. Third, I'm really proud of the team. So my team is fantastic. They deliver this huge transformation, clear business values, for our customers. We're really proud of them. However, Steph, no matter how smart you are, how good you are, and your teams as well, a transformation like that you can't do alone. You simply can't do that alone. That's why we count on strategic partnerships, partners that enable us with knowledge, with scale, with capacity, so we could reach all those markets that were in scope, partners like Areteans, like Deloitte, like Capgemini, Cognizant, they helped us to land this on the ground. And finally, the fourth point is about the mindset. I'm a technologist. I told you, 25 years in the company driving technology, sometimes we're getting love of that to choose the right tool, the right technology. Sometimes we fall in love with the technology or we fall in love with the problem, but we forget about what we want to achieve. In this case, for me, it's super important that I improve your experience as a store owner that you can be promoting with us better that you can be receiving your orders the way you ask it, that you can really be successful in your business, serving the consumers in your area. Thinking about the outcome.That, for me, is the final lesson that in this transformation we learn and we are trying to apply. I think that brings it all together with outcome and customer first. But you know, I can't let you leave without talking about the future and AI and the impact that you think it is going to have on your business. Wow. I think all of us here are in PegaWorld this year to learn about that. To learn about AI, the impact, and to imagine how we can transform our business using right AI, using collaboration, using this coordination. But let me give you three things that I believe AI will help us in the company and probably will help you as well, watching.

The first one is about process engineering. R&D for processes driven by AI. What do I mean? I'm really proud of what we've done. So the situational layer, global process model, we put the order to cash, we harmonize, we reduce the complexity, 300 systems to very few ones. Very proud of that. But imagine now they are looking at that and saying, oh, with all the data that we have and with this process modeling, the process AI recommending how I can be even better with my customers. One step further, that check mate that Alan said. So in one moment, in one movement or in two movements, well, how do we even simplify our process to serve the customers? Secondly, it's about talent. Oh, AI and talent. How does that fit? Yeah, because I do believe that I will be a fantastic source of augmentation for our internal talent. So freeing up the talent to focus on what matters. Steph, if you were working in customer operations, I think you don't want to spend your days crunching data here or making sure that integrations of system A and B are working, or spending the whole day trying to visualize thousands of dashboards. That's what you don't want to do. If you work in customer service and customer operations, you want to talk to the customer. That's what you want to do, right? You want to understand what they need. You want to talk to the business, to our category, say, well, what's the next innovation? Hellmann's? What's the next innovation in Dove, in Magnum so you can serve better the customer. That's what you want to do. And that's what I think AI will unleash that capacity for our talents. And finally. We are proud to be in the houses of 3.4 billion. Every single day. How can we connect better with them, more personally? How can we create more impactful daily lives? So positive impact. I do believe that AI will help us to really establish much more meaningful connections with 3.4, with 3.5, with 4 billion, whatever. So in a much personalized and meaningful way, that's what I believe AI will help us. I love that you're still bringing it back to the customer first, so I can't wait to see what you do. And thank you for sharing. This has been a blast to work on this with you. And thank you and Unilever for your continued partnership and we look forward to more. Thank you very much for having us and for the opportunity to share our story. Thank you, PegaWorld! Enjoy!