HEINEKEN’s AI strategy transforms operations & drives business growth

The HEINEKEN Company is using a multi-faceted artificial intelligence (AI) strategy to transform operations and support growth across the business. Following the release of its strong 2024 financial results, the beer brewing giant published its 2024 Annual Report, showcasing how it is embedding AI solutions in critical areas throughout the organization.

“In 2024 we continued to unleash AI-driven products that are streamlining our operations, driving efficiencies, optimizing engagement and empowering growth,” the report read. 

AI transforms global commerce operations

AI products are transforming HEINEKEN’s global commerce operations, helping it create incremental revenue opportunities and build a winning portfolio.

For example, Artificial Intelligence Data-Driven Advisor (AIDDA) predicts the best actions to take with customers, accelerating the transformation of sales representatives into true business advisors. “In 2024, it scaled to eight markets, enhancing productivity with 490,000 daily customer engagements,” according to the report. Similarly, Product Recommender, now live in seven markets, analyzes customer preferences and behaviors, delivering personalized suggestions to enhance user experience and drive sales.

What’s more, MERCURY – an AI product that optimizes the impact of marketing spend – is delivering incremental gross profit across three markets, while Promo Advisor – an AI product suite for revenue management that enables planning, simulation and optimization of targeted promotions – is boosting sales and return on investment (ROI).

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Generative AI pilots deliver promising results

HEINEKEN is also piloting generative AI – with promising results in various areas. For example, Hoppy is a generative AI chatbot that integrates data from multiple internal sources to navigate global standards, ways of working and processes, boosting productivity within finance teams. Likewise, the firm’s Knowledge and Insights Management platform (KIM) unlocks consumer and customer research and insights across all markets, making it easily accessible to commerce operations

Finally, HeiFi leverages ten years of data on the consumer-packaged goods (CPG) sector to offer strategic insights to leadership teams for better, quicker decision-making.

Unlocking the value of data

Robust, reliable data has been essential to HEINEKEN’s AI success. The company has onboarded more than 70 operating companies on DataPrime, its foundational data platform, enabling it to connect data across the business and use it to greater effect at scale.

“Building on this, we advanced our data and AI capabilities in 2024, embedding AI-driven products across our operations and rolling out literacy programs to ensure adoption. By treating data and insights as a strategic asset, we’re creating AI with measurable impact on business performance.”

Prioritizing customer-centric and ethical AI

To maximize AI’s impact, HEINEKEN prioritizes customer-centric AI products that are seamlessly integrated into operations and widely adopted by end-users, said Andrea Diebold, head of global analytics products. “Supported with robust capabilities that enhance AI literacy, this will pave the way for a shift from everyday AI to game-changing AI.”

It is also putting specific focus on AI ethics and standards. “Our Code of Business Conduct and our AI Ethics Principles offer guardrails to manage our ongoing use of AI and we continuously review our practices as technology evolves,” HEINEKEN stated.

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