Kimberly-Clark, a pioneer and global leader of mom-trusted baby and child care brands – the likes of Huggies, Kleenex, Andrex, Cottonelle, Scott, Kotex and others – seems to hold a special place for Bengaluru, compared to other cities in India as well as the rest of the world, where its global digital and technology centre is currently located.
“Bengaluru provides access to a highly skilled talent pool and serves as a hub of technological innovation within India,” recalled Sreekanth Jayabalan, VP and CIO of digital transformation office and enterprise markets at Kimberly-Clark, during an interview with AIM.
According to him, the decision to establish the GCC in Bengaluru was largely driven by the goal of fostering pioneering innovation within Kimberly-Clark. Interestingly, the company revealed that the team has a track record of developing innovative things to enhance its global speed-to-market initiatives.
“The team has built an AI-enabled solution called Maestro, which has saved us almost $20 million on an annual basis, optimising how we manage our stocks and how we manage our logistics,” Jayabalan added. “It could be in the marketing, digital marketing space, etc.”
Citing a recently concluded hackathon, an excited Jayabalan said it was fascinating to see various AI-driven solutions and demos from the team – including an AI-generated commercial well under three minutes. “This happens only in Bengaluru.”
Bengaluru x Huggies
Currently, Kimberly-Clark’s global digital technology centre in Bengaluru carries out engineering solution design, deployment, and support.
“We have our own architects,” Jayabalan boasted, adding that a lot of technology solutions are being architected and engineered by our own associates. “Many of whom sit in the centre.”
Further, he clarified that among much of the AI-based usage and innovation that occurs in Kimberly-Clark’s markets worldwide, the core technologies are being developed in Bengaluru both in-house as well as in close collaboration with Microsoft Azure, OpenAI, and others, for enhancing their marketing and e-commerce strategies.
For example, when consumers search for diapers on platforms like Flipkart or Amazon – each with its own algorithm – the team employs generative AI to optimise product display pages. This AI tailors language and keywords to align with the specific platform’s user search behaviour, something that would be difficult to manage manually at scale.
Additionally, the Bengaluru team has also developed proprietary route optimisation algorithms in-house, which are used to assist the field workforce, merchandisers, and salesmen in deciding which outlets they need to cover on a daily basis.
“There’s a next best action (NBA) algorithm that’s built out of here (Bengaluru) but deployed all over the world,” Jayabalan further said.
NBA explained: NBA algorithm actively guides field representatives through each step, recommending the following product to sell or the next item to inspect in the store. By considering tasks such as verifying inventory, educating customers about available offers and promoting specific products, it prioritises the most likely successful outcome for each customer interaction.
Bengaluru Hosts a Broader Range of In-house AI Tools
Apart from using Microsoft Azure and OpenAI, Kimberly-Clark is also building its own AI solutions. Its Global AI Center of Excellence in Bengaluru supports projects like KC-GPT, a custom version of ChatGPT enriched with the company’s own data.
Bots like ‘Fuel’ help teams find insights from over 15 years of market research, while ‘Violet’ helps factory workers follow best practices and use equipment correctly.
The company’s next step is ‘Clark IQ,’ a single interface that automatically directs user questions to the right AI tool or database. This means employees no longer need to know where to look. Clark IQ finds the best answer for them.
Clark IQ aims to make it easier for employees to get what they need quickly without having to figure out which system has the answer.
8x Growth
Kimberly-Clark said its Bengaluru team has been growing exponentially. “It was a small investment, about two and a half million dollars, with a very skeletal team when we started,” revealed Jayabalan. According to him, the company has grown eight times in the last five and a half years.
“I think it was around 40or 45 people back then. Today, we’ve grown to more than 400,” said Jayabalan. This is almost 8x growth in team size.
“So if we continue with this, I don’t see any reason why we shouldn’t continue on a trajectory like this,” he added.
Jayabalan said their GCC in Bengaluru makes all the difference. He pointed out that the team is much closer to the business and the customers than any system integrator partners or IT service providers.
He concluded by saying that for GCCs, the speed to market is significantly faster, and the ability to witness multiple cycles of innovation and iterations is much greater. As a result, the stickiness and engagement are notably stronger.
