A year in: Nestlé employees save 45 minutes per week using internal generative AI
Many workers are excited about generative AI, and are experimenting with it to see how it can boost their productivity and efficiency. And when a company helps with the experiment, it makes the learning curve just a little easier for the employee.
Nestlé has been quick off the mark to test how an internal generative AI tool can boost its corporate workforce efficiency. The consumer goods giant, which counts Nescafe and KitKat among its brand portfolio, introduced NesGPT to its North American offices last August after a global pilot in May.
A year later, the company has been able to identify how the tool is being used, what employees are saying about it and how to evolve its overall tech stack. All while avoiding the unregulated use of AI, also known as Shadow AI.
We spoke with Shan Collins, head of IT North America at Nestlé, to get an inside look at how it works and what the company has learned.
It’s not set-it-and-forget-it
Adoption didn’t happen overnight. In just the past three months, more than 7,000 employees across the company’s U.S. offices have generated nearly 230,000 prompts for the tool, which is powered by the same technology as ChatGPT. As WorkLife previously reported, those excited to try AI are early adopters and usually need no convincing. However, other workers are slower to try a new tech tool that requires more training and information.
“Since its initial rollout, we’ve provided several training sessions across our organization while also continuously working to develop our employees’ broader digital capabilities,” said Collins.
Those sessions focused on educating Nestlé teams on ways to leverage the tool and write effective prompts that can help simplify their day-to-day tasks, such as research, writing, or idea development. Additionally, the company communicates ongoing tips to their employees throughout the year to make using the tool easier, such as sharing ideas and scenarios for new ways of leveraging the tech. It’s not just a set-it-and-forget-it situation.
Because of these initiatives, NesGPT is used across various business functions, including sales, product innovation, marketing and legal teams, according to Collins. This includes using the tool for support in drafting content, drafting meeting agendas, proofreading, generating new ideas, analyzing data and explaining new topics or concepts.
“Our goal is to help lighten the weight of work for employees by streamlining processes and empowering them with access to more on-demand information, so they can free up time to do their best thinking, and ultimately help improve decision-making across the business,” said Collins.
Next evolution in business performance
A year since the initial rollout, employees have been positive about the tool. In a recent internal survey, NesGPT users cited that they are saving an average of 45 minutes per week, creating better and faster content, and spending less time searching for information.
“What’s really exciting is that gen AI technology has progressed significantly in a short period of time,” said Collins. “That, combined with our employees getting early experience in how to leverage these solutions as a digital personal assistant, will open up more opportunities and generate even greater benefits for our employees and the business.”
Nestlé has used AI-driven solutions to drive business performance for years, and Collins said that generative AI is the next evolution in the process.
“We’re using AI to add value across nearly every facet of our business, from building relationships with consumers to enhancing our operations with a connected system of real-time information, automation, and collaboration that boosts effectiveness,” said Collins.
For example, with sales operations, Nestlé is using AI to predict stockouts at retail locations and optimize pricing and promotions.
Product ideation has accelerated
Another exciting project where Nestlé is leveraging generative AI is for a new proprietary tool that is embedded into its end-to-end product innovation process. The technology incorporates consumer insights data and is being piloted to help teams generate product ideas much faster. It can present a range of concepts in a little over a minute, taking in inputs from more than 20 Nestlé USA brands. It analyzes real-time market trends to suggest creative product concepts that the teams can then go on to explore and test.
So far, Nestlé has trained about 100 team members who make up its innovation community on how to use the tool within the innovation process. The tool has accelerated the product ideation process from six months to six weeks.
“Innovation is part of Nestlé’s DNA, and our investments in new tools and capabilities like AI are significant and central to fueling our growth,” said Collins. “Our vision is to unleash the power of our people by digitally transforming the workplace to lighten the weight of work and help our employees thrive as their most creative, collaborative selves.”
NesGPT is now available to employees to use globally across Nestlé.