Consumer goods giant Unilever has unveiled a significant new collaboration with Google Cloud designed to modernise how the company conducts marketing, measures campaign success and connects with customers in an increasingly AI‑driven world.
At the centre of the initiative is the integration of advanced analytics, unified data systems and artificial intelligence into Unilever’s marketing infrastructure — a move that executives describe as enabling “agentic commerce,” where AI plays a proactive role in shaping product discovery and purchase journeys. The alliance aims to bolster performance across Unilever’s global brand portfolio by enhancing the way customer behaviour is understood, analysed and responded to.
Unifying Data for Smarter Marketing
Traditionally, many large consumer goods firms have struggled with fragmented data residing in separate tools and platforms, slowing insight generation and obscuring real‑time understanding of campaign performance. Unilever’s latest effort seeks to change that by consolidating disparate marketing and customer data into a coherent cloud‑based ecosystem powered by Google Cloud technologies.
By syncing data across channels and markets, Unilever teams will be better placed to assess performance quickly, adjust strategies based on emerging trends and measure return on investment with greater accuracy. The approach is part of a broader trend among major brands to collapse silos between marketing systems, commerce platforms and analytics engines.
As noted by industry observers including ITPro, the partnership feeds directly into Unilever’s wider digital transformation objectives, particularly the adoption of AI tools to automate elements of marketing analysis and accelerate collaboration across teams. With cloud‑hosted systems, marketers will be able to test new campaigns more rapidly and refine targeting using real‑time signals rather than relying on delayed reporting cycles.
Exploring Agentic Commerce
A standout feature of the collaboration is its exploration of “agent‑supported” or “agentic commerce,” where AI systems do more than crunch data — they actively inform how consumers discover and interact with products. This involves deploying AI to enhance product recommendations, boost search visibility and improve online shopping experiences.
Rather than reacting to what consumers already search for, these systems aim to anticipate preferences and guide shoppers earlier in their decision‑making journey. This proactive AI assistance represents a shift from traditional marketing tactics to more dynamic, data‑informed consumer engagement.
Answering the Pressure to Prove Marketing ROI
Unilever’s push comes amid heightened scrutiny of digital advertising effectiveness. Marketers are under increasing pressure to demonstrate tangible returns on digital spend, yet complexity in marketing technology stacks often obscures value.
Research from Gartner, cited widely in marketing technology discussions, suggests many organisations are only using around half of the features available within their martech platforms — a sign that tools are frequently underleveraged or poorly integrated. This capability gap has encouraged brands to look at whether AI‑powered solutions can simplify how insights are generated and applied across campaigns.
AI Adoption Across Major Brands
The Unilever–Google Cloud partnership also reflects how major advertisers are adapting to the growing influence of automated systems in online discovery. Search engines, retail marketplaces and social media platforms increasingly rely on algorithmic ranking and recommendation engines, shaping what consumers see first.
In this environment, brands must understand how AI affects visibility, pricing dynamics and the timing of promotions. Google Cloud’s AI offerings — which range from data processing and predictive modelling to automated campaign insight tools — provide infrastructure that organisations can integrate with their own marketing technologies.
By partnering directly with Google, Unilever not only gains access to these capabilities but also benefits from Google’s wider ecosystem of advertising and analytics services.
Balancing Global Scale with Local Relevance
Unilever’s global footprint — with products sold in more than 190 countries — presents a unique scale challenge. Marketing teams must balance global brand consistency with the flexibility to tailor campaigns for local audiences and cultural nuances.
Cloud‑based AI systems can help bridge this divide by enabling central teams to share insights universally while empowering regional teams to adapt executions as needed. The result is a more responsive, coordinated approach to global marketing that leverages shared intelligence across geographies.
A New Model for Marketing Technology
While the long‑term impact of this collaboration will depend on how effectively the systems are implemented and adopted, the strategic direction is clear: marketing technology is evolving from isolated tools into integrated platforms where data, analytics and shopping experiences are tightly connected.
Unilever’s alliance with Google Cloud demonstrates how a leading global brand is experimenting with this model, seeking better ways to understand customers, improve digital commerce performance and measure the true impact of marketing investments.