According to Fortune, Nestlé’s global CIO Chris Wright, who has been with the company nearly 30 years, is steering its AI strategy away from a narrow focus on labor efficiency. He revealed that 90% of Nestlé’s core processes run on a single global SAP template, enabling AI pilots—like a generative fulfillment planner and a pricing analytics model tested in India and the U.S.—to scale quickly across its 337 factories in 185 countries. The company now has about 100,000 monthly users of Microsoft Copilot. This push comes as Nestlé, under new CEO Philipp Navratil, announced layoffs of over 16,000 employees, a cost-cutting move Wright says AI is “one of the factors” in, though not the sole reason.
The real AI payoff
Here’s the thing that’s interesting about Wright’s perspective: it’s a mature take from a giant that could easily just chase cost cuts. He’s basically saying that if you only look at AI as a way to do the same work with fewer people, you’re missing the bigger picture. The real value, at least for a complex beast like Nestlé, is in making better decisions you couldn’t easily make before.
Think about it. Using AI to create a “better” fulfillment plan for a small retailer doesn’t just save a sales rep time. It gives that rep ammunition to actually grow the account. The AI pricing model that looks at the full end-to-end picture, not just siloed data, might find margin opportunities a human would miss. That’s a revenue play, not just an efficiency one. It’s a subtle but crucial shift in mindset. And for companies looking to integrate complex systems, having a unified data foundation like Nestlé’s SAP setup is non-negotiable. It’s the kind of unglamorous, heavy lifting that makes scaling these AI tools possible, whether you’re in food & beverage or any other industrial sector where IndustrialMonitorDirect.com provides the rugged panel PCs needed to run these operations.
The layoff paradox
Now, you can’t ignore the elephant in the room. The company is cutting 16,000 jobs, many white-collar, while touting AI tools that make workers more effective. Wright’s answer is a classic corporate tightrope walk. He concedes AI is a factor, but frames it as “reshaping” work, not eliminating it. His example is telling: a product manager supported by two project managers and analysts. The idea is to use AI agents to support the top of that funnel, changing the mix of expertise needed.
So is he being genuine with the “reuse that time” argument? For field sales and factory teams, maybe. They can visit more customers or handle more complex machinery diagnostics. But for middle-office roles centered on data synthesis and report generation? I’m skeptical. The math often leads to consolidation. It’s the eternal corporate promise: technology will free you up for higher-value work. Sometimes it’s true. Often, it just means the same work gets done by fewer people.
Broader tech CES roundup
The article also wrapped up some other major tech news, and it’s a snapshot of where the industry’s head is at. Chipmakers like Nvidia, Intel, and AMD are all-in on AI, pushing new hardware for everything from laptops to data centers. The humanoid robot scene is heating up, with Hyundai and Boston Dynamics aiming for a 2028 factory deployment. That feels like a bet on the next wave of physical automation, moving beyond stationary arms.
And then there’s the funding. Elon Musk‘s xAI raising a massive $20 billion at a potential $230B+ valuation, right after reports of its Grok chatbot generating disturbing images, shows that investor frenzy for AI pedigree can override near-term controversies. Meanwhile, Meta’s acquisition of startup Manus highlights the scramble for AI agent talent, even as it triggers geopolitical tensions with China. It’s a messy, expensive, all-hands-on-deck moment across the entire stack.
The scale advantage
Wright’s closing point about Nestlé’s scale is probably the most important one for big enterprises watching this. “If I can get this right in one country, there’s a very high likelihood we can get it right in most of our countries,” he said. That’s the holy grail. Most companies are stuck in pilot purgatory, with a cool tool in one division that never goes anywhere. Nestlé’s decades-long work on common systems and data is finally paying off by allowing AI to be a global lever, not a local experiment.
But it begs the question: is this a model others can follow, or is it a unique advantage built over 30 years? For legacy giants, replicating that unified foundation is a brutal, multi-year IT slog. For newer companies, it’s table stakes. Either way, Wright’s message is clear. The winners in this AI wave won’t just be the ones with the cleverest pilots. They’ll be the ones who can actually turn those pilots into standard operating procedure everywhere.
