Swiss multinational food maker Nestlé has appointed its first-ever global e-commerce innovation and AI lead.

The newly created position goes to Mario Bencivinni, who had previously served in as global e-commerce emerging channel lead (genAI, agentic AI).

Writing on LinkedIn, Bencivinni said his new, group-wide role will see him assist the sales, cross-market and IT teams on the creation, implementation and scaling of generative AI products.

He explained that, through AI adoption, the company is aiming to revolutionise shopper engagement, customer collaboration and the day-to-day operations of its sales teams in a fast-changing market.

Acknowledging that AI is quickly disrupting the retail landscape, he went on to say that “the scale of change ahead is significant”. With this in mind, he believes that “experimentation is no longer enough”.

“Scale, tangible impact and change management are now the real challenges, with people at the centre of this transformation, even more than technology itself,” he wrote.

It’s for these reasons that the company is doubling down on AI, with it evolving from “a few selected pilots” to “something much bigger”, according to Bencivinni.

Bencivinni also said he was “grateful to be part of a company like Nestlé that keeps looking ahead and truly believes in the next wave of innovation driven by genAI and agentic AI”.

Nestlé has made a plethora of AI announcements in the past year. In October, the firm announced it had upgraded its underlying digital infrastructure provided by German software maker SAP to make it easier and quicker to scale AI solutions across the company and to launch new products powered by the technology.

Last year also saw the firm collaborate with American tech giant Microsoft on an initiative designed to transform the business world by having humans and machines work more closely together. It also teamed up with Google on a UK-based food redistribution project aimed at reducing food waste by 1.5 million surplus meals.

In another recent development, the company has been using digital twins - which create digital, 3D versions of physical objects - for spearheading product marketing efforts at iconic brands such as Purina, Nescafé Dolce Gusto and Nespresso.

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