Unilever and Microsoft have signed a new agreement with the aim of accelerating innovation in the business area of chemistry and the development of consumer products, such as personal care products. As they explained, the partnership aims to reduce the timelines in the product development process.
In some of Unilever's brands, both those belonging to the personal care sector and other business areas, they are using a Microsoft platform based on Artificial Intelligence such as Azure Quantum Elements, which is used in their virtual global laboratory and at the core of their digital R&D work.
In doing so, the company with the platform can predict results based on the chemistry of the molecules, eliminating the need to actively manufacture them. This working model can predict results based on the chemistry of molecules and eliminates the need to actively manufacture them.
Unilever thus explores the discovery of new materials, such as the identification of molecules with specific characteristics that are essential for dedicated hair care products.
Alberto Prado, Global Head of Digital R&D and Alliances at Unilever, has welcomed the integration of Quantum Elements into its R&D process: "We have achieved significant improvements in simulation and analysis, reducing discovery times from years to months. This collaboration allows us to accelerate innovation and bring new solutions to market faster. Zulfi Alam, corporate vice president of Azure Quantum at Microsoft, explained that the platform "accelerates scientific discovery by combining advances in high-performance computing, artificial intelligence and, soon, quantum computing. This allows scientists to efficiently analyse large numbers of molecules and identify promising chemical combinations. Our collaboration with Unilever brings together our computing capabilities with the scale and excellence of R&D, leading to some truly exciting possibilities."