From Diaspora Intelligence to AI: Unilever International’s Data Revolution

Exclusive Interview with Aseem Puri, CEO, Unilever International

• How is Unilever International using data and analytics to bring underserved and overlooked consumer groups into the center of your decision-making?

Many of the consumers we serve are invisible to conventional market structures, which are usually built around large, well-measured countries and mainstream shoppers. At Unilever International, we have turned that around by defining “underserved consumers” as our starting point: immigrants, global aspirers, and consumers in SMILE (small, island, landlocked, extreme) markets, who are often overlooked by traditional business models – and our business approach is specifically designed around these consumers.

Data analytics is central to our operations. We pull information from SAP, Salesforce and other operational systems into a single digital backbone, so shipment flows, customer orders, distributor stock and sales performance are visible in one real-time view across business functions. Alongside this, we use digital and social listening tools to understand what specific communities are searching for, watching and discussing, and we route those insights directly into innovation, portfolio and media decisions.

That is how we picked up emerging home-care rituals in Korea which inspired the Snuggle room spray and indoor dry range, now accounting for roughly 10% of the country’s fabric softener market. The same logic applies to partnerships: our role in building the ICC women’s cricket platform for brands such as Rexona and Dove was based on data on women’s sports viewership, participation and fandom, particularly in markets like India and the UAE. In this way, our investments are tied to real participation for girls and women and to growth in whitespace markets, not just to media reach.

• Diaspora consumers behave like distinct micro-markets with their own preferences. How are you using predictive modeling to anticipate their needs before they emerge?

For Unilever International, diaspora consumers are not a marginal audience; they are one of our largest growth engines. We serve more than 500 million diasporas across 40 SMILE markets, with a strong presence in the Gulf. We treat each major diaspora as a micro-market, with its own set of preferred brands, formats and seasonal or festive peaks.

Our predictive models combine migration trends, remittance flows where these are available, historic consumption patterns, and digital search and social signals to forecast how, when and where demand is likely to appear. As a result, we do not wait for an out-of-stock alert before acting.

For brands such as Bru, Lady’s Choice and Rafhan, we use forward-looking algorithms to shape assortment and route-to-market for South Asian and Middle Eastern communities in hubs such as the UAE, the UK and Australia.

From the shopper’s perspective, the benefit is simple. When they arrive in Dubai or London, the brands and pack sizes they recognise from home are already available in store or online, such as Ramadan, Diwali or Eid, because our models have anticipated those peaks rather than reacting after the seasons.

• Digital integration and data sharing are becoming standard across retailers and e-commerce platforms. How have these partnerships evolved for Unilever International in the UAE?

In the UAE, we have purposefully moved our relationships with retailers and e-commerce platforms away from purely transactional interactions towards shared value creation. By integrating sell-in and sell-out data feeds into our digital systems, we can see, almost in real time, how diaspora and expatriate shoppers are buying across modern trade and online channels.

This shared visibility allows us to co-create category strategies with key partners. Together, we tailor shelf layouts for Indian, Filipino or African shoppers in specific catchment areas, align promotional calendars to their festive occasions, and optimise e-commerce cut-off times so that late-night orders can still arrive the following day. Data sharing help both parties to reduce waste, avoid duplicated inventory and execute innovations with much shorter and more reliable launch windows.

Our role in brokering platforms such as ICC women’s cricket, announced at a festival in Dubai, also gives our customers access to high-energy brand properties. We then activate these jointly across stores, e-commerce and social channels in the Gulf. This creates a closed loop between data, media and execution that is grounded in the lived experience of UAE consumers, rather than driven solely by internal planning cycles.

• AI adoption is accelerating across supply chains and consumer insights. How is Unilever International using AI to create real value for underserved consumers while enabling faster, smarter growth?

We see AI as a strategic teammate that extends the capability of our people rather than replacing them. Our AI Hub in Singapore co-ordinates how tools are deployed across demand sensing, supply chain and marketing, and human resources. We are moving from isolated experiments to integrated systems that connect marketing, supply chain, finance and resourcing data so that decisions can be made jointly and in real time.

For underserved consumers, the impact is very tangible. AI-driven demand sensing and container optimisation help us keep shelves stocked and navigate complex routes without relying on a single corridor, even when there are disruptions such as the Red Sea crisis. AI-powered social listening highlights niche behaviours, for example Koreans using fabric fresheners as room sprays or searching for indoor drying solutions. These insights led to new Snuggle formats tailored to local needs, which gained share quickly.

We also have a documentation centre of excellence to manage end-to-end paperwork for new and existing product entries. We have partnered with a tech startup to develop an AI-optical character reading programme that supports import and export processes, and optimises container loads with 100% accuracy.

All AI activity is guided by Unilever’s Responsible AI Policy, which requires transparency, human oversight and the ability to challenge decisions in every use case. This balance between speed and responsibility allows us to unlock growth without compromising trust.

• In many emerging markets, data is often limited or incomplete. How do you build a reliable, tech-enabled decision-making system in these environments to ensure accuracy and speed?

Many of the countries we serve, including small islands, landlocked states and conflict-affected territories, do not generate the rich, structured data sets that larger markets enjoy. Instead of waiting for perfect information, Unilever International has built a “good enough to act” decision system that deliberately combines different sources of insight.

We integrate shipment data from our SAP backbone, distributor sell-out data where it can be secured, digital shelf and pricing information, and social listening. We complement this with qualitative insight from local teams, NGOs and institutional partners. In SMILE markets such as rural Laos or East Timor, we overlay container-level visibility so that we can see precisely where goods are located, how long customs processes are taking and where real bottlenecks are forming.

AI-enabled tools help us to close the gaps. We use proxy indicators to forecast demand and plan scenarios to test potential price and promotion moves. Human judgement, particularly from local partners, remains central. Our digital backbone ensures that decisions are fast, repeatable and auditable, even in highly challenging environments.

• Leading a tech-driven organization requires both vision and adaptability. What personal leadership principle has shaped the way you guide Unilever International through digital transformation and fast-moving markets?

The principle that has influenced my leadership most is empathy combined with decisive action. Unilever International delivers products to nearly every country in the world, barring sanction markets, which means our teams work across a wide range of cultures, regulatory environments and infrastructure conditions. If I do not genuinely understand what motivates colleagues, customers and consumers on the ground, even the strongest digital strategy remains abstract.

At the same time, I believe in empowering our teams to experiment and fail forward. This mindset, supported by data and AI, allowed us, for example, to build a direct-to-consumer platform in 100 days and to scale collaborations such as the IHG bulk-amenities partnership, which removes hundreds of tonnes of single-use plastic annually while giving travellers an improved yet sustainable Dove experience.

We embed this way of working through our “digital identity” approach, where leaders explicitly carry digital responsibilities within their titles and objectives. This makes it clear that technology, AI and data are not the concern of a separate specialist team. They are part of how every leader at Unilever International serves underserved consumers and grows the business with both speed and responsibility.