How Danone Is Using AI To Cut Friction Across Operations
For over a century, Danone has pushed to bring health through food to as many people as possible. With operations in 120+ countries, the math is simple: efficiency fuels growth. That's why the company partnered with Microsoft to equip its teams with AI tools and skills-and to weave AI into daily work across the business.
The goal is practical: get routine tasks out of the way, tighten core processes, and move faster without losing quality. The results are starting to show up where it matters for Operations.
First Milestones: Microsoft 365 Copilot At Scale
Danone tied its digital plan to its biggest asset-its 90,000 people. In 2024, the company kicked off a program to upskill and reskill roughly 100,000 employees for the work ahead. A big part of that: rolling out Microsoft 365 Copilot to over 50,000 people, with 10,000 licenses live on day one.
By offloading routine tasks, teams reclaimed hours each week and shifted that time to higher-value work. The fast rollout proved the ROI early and set up the next wave of change.
Agentic AI: From Tasks To End-to-End Flows
With momentum building, Danone moved into Agentic AI-autonomous agents that handle multi-step workflows. The first targets: HR, Procurement, and Shared Services. The brief was clear: fewer handoffs, fewer errors, faster outcomes.
HR Changes Without The Back-and-Forth
Before, promotions and reassignments meant manual forms, email ping-pong, and the occasional mistake. Now, managers work with an AI agent that pre-fills data, validates entries, and checks org structures automatically. The result: cleaner data, faster cycle times, and a better experience for everyone involved.
Order-to-Cash: Fewer Disputes, Faster Cash
Danone processes thousands of orders a day across email, PDFs, and EDI. That variety created pricing inconsistencies and data entry errors, which snowballed into disputes and delayed payments. An autonomous agent built with Microsoft Copilot Studio and connected through Microsoft Teams now analyzes every order, no matter the format.
It cross-checks prices against ERP and promo tools, flags mismatches before invoicing, and offers actionable fixes. It can even draft professional emails so teams can resolve pricing issues quickly and keep relationships strong.
Procurement Wins That Show Up On The P&L
Automated validation workflows sped up order handling and cut down billing disputes. Payment delays dropped, improving cash flow. Precision where AI is strong, judgment where people are strongest-that mix is paying off.
From Hype To Results
As one leader put it, AI is moving fast and changing how the company builds its plans. The approach is simple and strict: tie AI initiatives to digital and commercial priorities, then focus on the few that matter most. That focus keeps teams shipping real improvements in marketing, consumer engagement, patient insights, R&I, and operations.
What Operations Leaders Can Copy Now
- Start with personal productivity. Prove value fast by saving hours in meetings, email, and documentation. Then move to process automation.
- Pick processes with clear data and measurable outcomes: HR changes, order intake, pricing validation, invoice prep.
- Use agents to reduce handoffs. Let AI pre-fill, validate, and route; keep humans for approvals and exceptions.
- Integrate where your teams already work (e.g., chat, ERP, ticketing). Adoption follows convenience.
- Measure what matters: order accuracy, dispute rate, DSO, HR cycle time, automation coverage, and user adoption.
- Close the loop. When agents flag issues, capture the fix and improve the rules so the same error doesn't come back.
Why This Works For Ops
AI shines when the process is repetitive, rules-based, and spread across multiple systems. That's most of Operations. The key is to automate the checks and handoffs while keeping people in control of outcomes.
Next Steps
- Audit one process end to end. Map steps, systems, owners, and failure points.
- Automate three moments: data capture, validation against source-of-truth systems, and exception handling.
- Pilot with a small team for two weeks. Track disputes, cycle time, and rework. Roll out in waves.
If you're building team skills to support this shift, explore practical training by job role here: AI courses by job.
Bottom Line
Danone shows what happens when you focus AI where it reduces friction: HR changes move faster, orders go out cleaner, and cash comes in sooner. Start with productivity, graduate to agents, and measure every step. That's how Operations wins with AI-consistently.
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