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At the heart of Unilever’s Growth Action Plan (PDF 362.19 KB) is our work to place superior brands in the hands of consumers, brightening everyday life for people all over the world. Science and technology are helping us do just that, empowering our teams to innovate, create and ultimately drive business growth.
Meet two women leading the charge. Dr Sam Samaras is SVP of Science & Technology for our Personal Care R&D. Tiffany Yizar is Head of R&D in our Beauty & Wellbeing business in North America.
Here they discuss how AI, machine learning and big data are shaping the future of our products.
Sam: In chaos theory, the butterfly effect is the concept that tiny changes can spark unpredictable outcomes. A butterfly flaps its wings on one side of the world, causing a hurricane thousands of miles away. The AI technology we have allows us to interrogate complex biology data to find that ‘butterfly’ that allows us to invent new technology.
Tiffany: Exactly. With discoveries like machine learning and AI, we can unpack and explore enormous sets of data in a way that’s never been possible before. We’re applying the sort of tech that was initially invented to help predict things like the weather or global financial fluctuations – but we’re using it to better understand the human body and that is an incredibly powerful unlock for product development.
Sam: Unilever’s always been a pioneer when it comes to science, but there’s been an exponential change in the way we can understand complexity in the past five or ten years. In the past we might have had to carry out 1,000 experiments to get the data we needed for a new ingredient. Now we can do a fraction of that – and machine learning helps us to mathematically model the rest, using very sophisticated statistical methods. It means we can free up time for the kind of creativity that only the human mind can bring.
Tiffany: The work we do in our Polycultural Centre of Excellence (PCOE) is a great example of that. We know that products designed for melanin-rich skin are a huge growth opportunity for our Beauty & Wellbeing brands and this is a key strategic segment for Unilever in North America.
At the PCOE we’re entirely focused on studying and capturing data around melanin-rich skin tones, textured hair and what consumers from these under-served cohorts really need and want from their products. But our amazing technology is only as good as the data underneath – and so we’re making sure we are the experts in this field.
Sam: What’s exciting is that we’re using the latest measurement technology in clinical design so that we can understand this very important growing demographic.
We’re using new tech to work out more about the biology of hair and skin, and our findings are already making their way into products like Vaseline Radiant X and launches from Dove and Shea Moisture that are differentiated to meet consumers’ needs.
Tiffany: Another fast-growing area from our Personal Care business is whole-body deodorant. We’ve launched whole-body deo products under our Dove, Rexona, Dove Men+Care and Shea Moisture brands and they’re contributing to great growth results from our Deodorants business. Where Unilever has a huge scientific advantage here is in our understanding of the skin microbiome – we have one of the largest compendiums of microbiome data in the world.
Sam: That’s right. Unilever has built one of the world’s largest deodorant businesses, so we know a lot about the underarm and underarm sweat. But understanding the physiology and biology of whole-body odour is quite different.
The massive amount of microbiome data we can mine using AI and other tech allows us to examine how sweat and wetness affect other areas of the body, like under the breasts, in intimate areas or on the back. It means we’re able to design products that help prevent wetness in those places, leaving people feeling comfortable and confident. We’re creating bespoke technology that really works to deliver on a big growth opportunity, for both wetness and odour all over the body.
Sam: One of my favourite products that we created using sophisticated digital tools is Dove’s new serum shower collection with Unilever’s patented MicroMoisture™ technology. It’s an example of how we’re elevating products to add a premium edge by giving consumers something that’s demonstrably superior, and desirable to use.
Tiffany: We developed MicroMoisture™ using nanotechnology, creating a formula with tiny droplets of moisture that are just the right size to stay on the skin for longer, even after showering, leaving the skin feeling wonderfully silky.
Our Process Engineering team – who make the product exclusively on Unilever sites – are highly digitally enabled too. Our plants are fully integrated to make sure they can manufacture this complex formula, and Unilever is the only place where MicroMoisture™ is made. It’s completely unique to our brands.
Sam: Biology is infinitely complex. Only a machine enabled by AI has the breadth of computational power to be able to pull enormous disparate sets of data together and learn something new from them in a matter of minutes.
It’s not just saving us time. It’s allowing us to do things we never could do before.
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