Verified
PepsiCo
Piloting- Food and beverages
- ~306,000 employees
- PepGenX on Amazon Bedrock
- Gemini Enterprise (Apr 2026)
- Agentforce (Jun 2025)
PepsiCo deploys AI through cloud and software partners: PepGenX, its internal generative AI platform, draws on foundation models through Amazon Bedrock, Google's Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform was added in Apr 2026, and Salesforce Agentforce supports sales and customer service. Athina Kanioura, Chief Strategy & Transformation Officer and CEO of Latin America Foods, owns the program, which spans supply chain planning, digital twins built with Siemens and NVIDIA, store ordering and marketing. PepsiCo has published a business return only for its digital twin pilots.
pepsico.comTheir approach to AI
- The platform
- PepGenX, PepsiCo's internal generative AI platform, gives developers and technical teams a choice of foundation models through Amazon Bedrock (May 2025), and PepsiCo added Google's Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform in Apr 2026.
- The models
- PepsiCo buys its models: foundation models through Amazon Bedrock, Google Gemini through Gemini Enterprise, and Salesforce Agentforce agents. PepsiCo has not named the models behind PepGenX.
- The reach
- PepsiCo has not published how many of its about 306,000 employees use AI tools; Google Cloud said in Apr 2026 that Gemini Enterprise puts AI in the hands of PepsiCo's global workforce.
- The catch
- PepsiCo credits its record productivity savings to automation, digitalization and simplification together, and has put a number on AI only for its digital twin pilots (Jan 2026).
Snapshot
- Employees
- ~306,000
- Dec 27, 2025, including about 125,000 in the U.S. (2025 Form 10-K)
- Technology budget
- Not disclosed
- Capital spending planned below 5% of net revenue in 2026; 2025 capex included IT harmonization, automation and digitization
- Who owns AI
- Athina Kanioura
- Chief Strategy & Transformation Officer since 2020; also CEO, Latin America Foods since Dec 28, 2025
- Platform
- PepGenX, built in-house
- Integrated with Amazon Bedrock by May 2025; Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform added Apr 2026
- Models
- Bedrock models, Google Gemini, Agentforce
- PepsiCo has not named the specific models it runs
- Reach
- Not disclosed
- Only approved, vetted AI tools may be used (2026 Global Code of Conduct)
- Use cases
- Supply chain, sales, marketing
- No count published; digital twins are the only use case with a reported return
Key findings
PepsiCo's internal generative AI platform, PepGenX, was integrated with Amazon Bedrock under a multi-year AWS agreement announced in May 2025, giving PepsiCo developers and technical teams a choice of foundation models, and PepsiCo added Google Cloud's Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform under a multi-cloud strategy in Apr 2026.
Athina Kanioura, PepsiCo's Chief Strategy & Transformation Officer since 2020 and previously Chief Analytics Officer at Accenture, owns PepsiCo's digitalization strategy and its data products, platforms and talent, and on Dec 28, 2025 also became CEO of Latin America Foods; Databricks named Magesh Bagavathi as PepsiCo's Global Chief Data and AI Officer in Jun 2026.
PepsiCo said at CES on Jan 6, 2026 that digital twins built with Siemens and NVIDIA raised throughput 20% on their initial deployment, the only AI use case for which PepsiCo has published a business return; the 10% to 15% capital expenditure cut PepsiCo cited alongside it is an estimate, according to Siemens.
PepsiCo has not disclosed how many of its about 306,000 employees (Dec 27, 2025) use AI tools, how many AI use cases it runs, or what it spends on AI.
PepsiCo credits the record productivity savings it reported for 2025 and expects for 2026 to automation, digitalization and simplification together, with AI deployment listed as one lever, and Ramon Laguarta said in Oct 2025 that PepsiCo's five years of technology spending could now pay off by applying AI to the data it had built.
Where PepsiCo sits
- Stage
- Piloting
PepsiCo sits at Piloting: a named executive, Athina Kanioura, owns AI, and Databricks named Magesh Bagavathi as PepsiCo's Global Chief Data and AI Officer in Jun 2026; PepGenX, its generative AI platform, is open to developers and technical teams; a Global Responsible AI Policy limits staff to approved tools; and AI runs in production in forecasting, store ordering, shelf image recognition, sales and service agents, and a restaurant menu platform. PepsiCo falls short of Scaling because it has not shown a company-wide AI tool open to most of its about 306,000 employees (the Gemini Enterprise rollout was announced in Apr 2026 with no user count), has published no count of use cases, and reports a business return only for its digital twin pilots.
How the stages are defined - Ownership
- Athina Kanioura, Chief Strategy & Transformation Officer, also CEO of Latin America Foods
- Platform
- Hybrid: PepGenX built in-house on Amazon Bedrock; Gemini Enterprise and Agentforce bought
- Models
- Amazon Bedrock foundation models, Google Gemini, Salesforce Agentforce
- Hosting
- AWS (PepGenX on Amazon Bedrock) and Google Cloud under a multi-cloud strategy, Salesforce's cloud for Agentforce, and a data foundation on Microsoft Azure with Azure Databricks; no own data center inference disclosed
- Reach
- Not disclosed; PepGenX open to developers and technical teams (May 2025)
How they deploy
Buy the models, build on partners' clouds
PepsiCo builds its AI on partner platforms instead of training its own models. PepsiCo named AWS a strategic cloud provider for AI in May 2025 and integrated its PepGenX platform with Amazon Bedrock, announced plans to deploy Salesforce Agentforce in Jun 2025, and signed a multi-year Google Cloud agreement in Apr 2026 that PepsiCo said gives it the flexibility to use the best available AI technology under a multi-cloud strategy.
Data foundation first, then AI on costs
Ramon Laguarta said in Oct 2025 that PepsiCo had invested heavily in technology for five years, that the spending sat in its P&L as a cost, and that PepsiCo could now benefit by applying AI to the data infrastructure it had built. Laguarta told investors in Feb 2026 that PepsiCo's data, systems backbone, cloud and partners were in place and that PepsiCo was ready for a much faster rollout of technology across its work.
Supply chain and go-to-market first
Ramon Laguarta said in Apr 2026 that PepsiCo is applying AI in its supply chain, transportation and route optimization, and moving to digital ordering systems that cut the time salespeople spend taking orders, with supply chain and go-to-market as the two largest areas. PepsiCo's Google Cloud agreement names supply chain management and go-to-market execution as its first targets (Apr 2026).
Digital twins and agents
PepsiCo is moving to digital-first facility planning, using physics-based digital twins and AI agents as co-designers to test plant and warehouse changes before any physical build, with U.S. pilots under way by Jan 2026 and plans to scale globally. Athina Kanioura said in Aug 2026 that PepsiCo is building agents on top of digital twins that give staff real-time recommendations, root-cause analysis, predictive maintenance and inventory forecasts.
Latin America as a test bed
Athina Kanioura, who took over Latin America Foods in Dec 2025, said in Aug 2026 that the region is where PepsiCo tests a new consumer engagement model: a direct-to-consumer platform rolled out in Mexico and Brazil in 2025, a rewards platform, and digital ordering in which store owners can auto-order. PepsiCo said in Dec 2025 that Latin America Foods would keep using digital-first solutions and AI under Kanioura.
- Deployment model
- PepsiCo runs AI from a central strategy and transformation organization with delivery through partners and business units. Athina Kanioura oversees PepsiCo's end-to-end strategy, its digitalization strategy, company-wide transformation, and Data Products, Platforms, and Talent, and co-leads the cybersecurity function with the Chief Information Security Officer (2025 Form 10-K). Databricks listed Magesh Bagavathi as PepsiCo's Global Chief Data and AI Officer in Jun 2026; PepsiCo has not published his reporting line. PepGenX serves developers and technical teams building generative AI applications; Salesforce, AWS, Google Cloud, Siemens and NVIDIA supply the platforms; and use cases sit in the businesses, such as PepsiCo North America's supply chain and Digital Commerce teams, the PepsiCo Digital Lab behind Menu, and Latin America Foods. Global Capability Centers centralize information and shared services across functions.
- Model providers
- PepsiCo has not named the models it uses. PepsiCo said in May 2025 that AWS had integrated PepGenX with Amazon Bedrock, giving PepsiCo developers a choice of multi-modal foundation models and agentic capabilities. The Apr 2026 Google Cloud agreement brings Gemini models to PepsiCo through Gemini Enterprise and the Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform. Salesforce Agentforce agents handle sales, service and field functions (Jun 2025), Gatorade's bottle design tool runs on Adobe Firefly generative models (Oct 2024), and PepsiCo's digital twins run on Siemens Digital Twin Composer, built on NVIDIA Omniverse libraries, with computer vision (Jan 2026).
- Data and infrastructure
- PepsiCo calls its approach cloud-first and multi-cloud: it is migrating applications and workloads to AWS under a May 2025 agreement and moving to Google Cloud infrastructure under an Apr 2026 one. Ramon Laguarta said in Feb 2025 that PepsiCo was almost done rolling out SAP in the U.S. and had connected its data lakes, which opened more use cases. Salesforce Data Cloud unifies PepsiCo's customer data into single profiles (Jun 2025). PepsiCo's data and analytics team wrote in Jun 2024 that it chose Microsoft Azure for the PepsiCo Data Foundation, which then held more than 6 petabytes governed with Databricks Unity Catalog, and Databricks said in Apr 2026 that PepsiCo was retiring its Synapse and Teradata warehouses for one governed analytics and AI platform on Azure Databricks. PepsiCo's 2025 Form 10-K lists shared service centers in Hyderabad and Mexico City, and PepsiCo has not said whether any AI models run in its own data centers.
Platforms and internal tools
PepGenXBy May 2025
PepGenX is PepsiCo's internal generative AI platform. AWS integrated PepGenX with Amazon Bedrock, giving PepsiCo developers and technical teams a choice of multi-modal foundation models and agentic capabilities to build applications and generative AI use cases on AWS (May 2025). PepsiCo has not published PepGenX's launch date or user count.
- Users
- Developers and technical teams (May 2025)
- Models
- Foundation models through Amazon Bedrock
Gemini Enterprise and Gemini Enterprise Agent PlatformAnnounced Apr 2026
PepsiCo's multi-year Google Cloud agreement uses the Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform to expand data and analytics on Google Cloud infrastructure, support decisions from long-term strategy to in-store execution, and embed Gemini Enterprise in AI-enabled workflows so associates spend less time on manual work.
- Models
- Google Gemini
Salesforce Agentforce and Data CloudJun 2025
PepsiCo deploys Salesforce Agentforce agents for go-to-market and business-to-business processes, with Data Cloud for unified customer profiles, Consumer Goods Cloud for field representatives' real-time inventory view, Service Cloud for customer service shared by people and agents, Marketing Cloud for automated campaigns, and a Trade Promotion Management tool.
- Models
- Salesforce Agentforce
Digital twin blueprintJan 2026
PepsiCo builds high-fidelity 3D digital twins of select U.S. plants and warehouses on Siemens Digital Twin Composer and NVIDIA Omniverse libraries, recreating every machine, conveyor, pallet route and operator path so AI agents can simulate and test changes before physical work. PepsiCo plans to scale the approach globally.
Menu2023
Menu is a platform the PepsiCo Digital Lab launched in 2023, powered by Global S&T, that uses AI and data from DoorDash, Uber Eats, Toast and restaurants' point-of-sale systems to help restaurant customers update prices, layouts, descriptions and photos across their online menus, free of charge.
- Users
- More than 1 million menus powered (Dec 2025)
PepsiCo Data FoundationBy Jun 2024
The PepsiCo Data Foundation is PepsiCo's central global data platform on Microsoft Azure, governed with Databricks Unity Catalog, which PepsiCo's data team said in Jun 2024 consolidated more than 6 petabytes and was meant to move analytics toward machine learning and AI. Databricks said in Apr 2026 that data from PepsiCo's older warehouses and sector data lakes now sits in one enterprise data foundation on Azure Databricks.
- Users
- More than 1,500 active users (Jun 2024)
Perfect Store tools: Store DNA, Pep IRiS and PepsiConnectBy Oct 2026
Store DNA profiles each outlet from sales, store lists, local points of interest, demographics and foot traffic; sales force automation turns the profile into tasks for field teams; PepsiConnect gives store owners actions, promotions and ordering; and Pep IRiS image recognition turns shelf photos into insights on gaps and misplaced products.
Vendors and partners
Amazon Web ServicesMay 2025
Strategic cloud provider for AI, supply chain and consumer experience; Amazon Bedrock behind PepGenX · AWS Professional Services works with PepsiCo on cloud migration, generative AI, advertising insights across Amazon audiences, and scoping predictive maintenance for manufacturing and logistics.
Google CloudApr 2026
Gemini Enterprise and Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform; cloud infrastructure · PepsiCo announced the multi-year agreement at Google Cloud Next on Apr 22, 2026 as part of its multi-cloud strategy.
SalesforceAgentforce from Jun 2025
Agentforce agents, Data Cloud, Consumer Goods Cloud, Service Cloud, Marketing Cloud and trade promotion management · PepsiCo called the Jun 2025 Agentforce agreement an expanded collaboration with Salesforce.
Microsoft AzureBy Jun 2024
Cloud for the PepsiCo Data Foundation and Azure Databricks
DatabricksBy Jun 2024
Lakehouse and Unity Catalog governance for the PepsiCo Data Foundation · Databricks listed Magesh Bagavathi among the keynote speakers at its Data + AI Summit in Jun 2026.
Publicis GroupeSep 2026
Lead global media partner, building a media model on AI and data · PepsiCo confirmed the choice to Adweek, and its Oct 2026 remarks said the partnership aims at cost savings and a better return on marketing investment.
SiemensJan 2026
Digital Twin Composer for plant and warehouse digital twins
NVIDIAJan 2026
Omniverse libraries under the Siemens digital twins
Gatik2022
Autonomous trucks in PepsiCo's North America regional freight networks · PepsiCo and Gatik signed a multi-year agreement on Jun 8, 2026, which PepsiCo calls the largest commercial autonomous freight deployment to date; Gatik describes its Gatik Driver as an AI system.
Stanford Institute for Human-Centered Artificial IntelligenceJun 2023
Research on responsible AI in consumer goods · PepsiCo was the first consumer packaged goods company in Stanford HAI's Corporate Affiliate Program.
AdobeOct 2024
Firefly generative AI for Gatorade bottle personalization
Leadership
AI, data and platform leaders
Executives
AI org map
Central strategy and transformation office owns AI, data and platforms; delivery through partners and business units
PepsiCo's published leadership team includes no chief AI officer, CIO or chief data officer, although Databricks named Magesh Bagavathi as PepsiCo's Global Chief Data and AI Officer in Jun 2026. Athina Kanioura, Chief Strategy & Transformation Officer since 2020, owns digitalization strategy, company-wide transformation and Data Products, Platforms, and Talent, and has also run Latin America Foods since Dec 28, 2025. AI use cases sit in the business units, chiefly PepsiCo North America under Ram Krishnan, whose organization includes the North America Supply Chain team, and in PepsiCo's Global Capability Centers.
PepsiCo has not disclosed an AI, data science or technology headcount. Athina Kanioura's strategy and transformation organization oversees digitalization, Data Products, Platforms, and Talent, and PepsiCo's careers site lists data science and analytics, software engineering, cybersecurity, strategy and transformation roles under technology. PepsiCo's Global Capability Centers, including leased shared service centers in Hyderabad and Mexico City, support multiple functions, and AI use cases are run by business teams such as North America Digital Commerce, North America Supply Chain and the PepsiCo Digital Lab.
Reporting lines
Chairman and CEO
Strategy & Transformation
Athina Kanioura, Chief Strategy & Transformation Officer
Digitalization strategy, company-wide transformation, and Data Products, Platforms, and Talent; the line to the CEO is inferred from her executive officer role, not published
Data, Analytics and AI
Magesh Bagavathi, Global Chief Data and AI Officer
Title from Databricks (Jun 2026); placement under Strategy & Transformation is inferred from Athina Kanioura's oversight of Data Products, Platforms, and Talent, not published
Cybersecurity
Chief Information Security Officer (not named publicly)
The 2025 Form 10-K says the cybersecurity function is led by the Chief Strategy and Transformation Officer and the CISO
North America Supply Chain
Digital Commerce, North America
Vince Jones, SVP
Placement inferred from PepsiCo's reference to his North America team; reporting line not published
PepsiCo Digital Lab
André Moraes
Built Menu, which PepsiCo says is powered by Global S&T; reporting line not published
PepsiCo's leadership page, checked Nov 1, 2026, lists its senior leaders and names no CIO, CTO, chief data officer or chief AI officer. PepsiCo's 2025 Form 10-K and 2026 proxy say the Chief Strategy and Transformation Officer and the Chief Information Security Officer brief the board on cybersecurity, and Athina Kanioura's company biography says she oversees Data Products, Platforms, and Talent. PepsiCo has not published who runs data and AI day to day under Kanioura since she added Latin America Foods; Databricks and SiliconANGLE named Magesh Bagavathi as PepsiCo's head of data, analytics and AI in Jun 2026, without a reporting line.
Named people
Use cases
PepsiCo has not published a count of its AI use cases. PepsiCo executives name AI in supply chain planning and demand forecasting, plant and warehouse digital twins, transportation and route optimization, autonomous freight, store ordering, shelf image recognition, Salesforce Agentforce agents for sales and service, marketing content, and the Menu platform for restaurants. PepsiCo has published a business return only for its Siemens and NVIDIA digital twin pilots, a 20% throughput gain on initial deployment (Jan 2026), and reports no firm-level AI return: it credits its record productivity savings to automation, digitalization and simplification together, with AI as one lever.
| Use case | Area | Status | ROI |
|---|---|---|---|
| Digital twins of plants and warehouses PepsiCo turns select U.S. plants and warehouses into physics-based digital twins on Siemens Digital Twin Composer and NVIDIA Omniverse, where AI agents simulate layout changes and catch up to 90% of potential issues before physical work, with plans to scale globally. PepsiCo estimates the approach cuts capital expenditure 10% to 15% (Siemens, Jan 2026). | Supply chain | Pilot | Throughput up 20% on initial deployment, credited to digital twins and AI agents (Jan 2026) |
| Integrated business planning and demand forecasting PepsiCo forecasts demand automatically through integrated business planning that runs through to procurement, Ramon Laguarta said in Feb 2026; Athina Kanioura said in Aug 2026 that PepsiCo is building agents that give staff inventory forecasts and recommendations. | Supply chain | In production | |
| Predictive maintenance AWS and PepsiCo were scoping predictive maintenance for manufacturing and logistics in May 2025, and Athina Kanioura listed predictive maintenance among the agent capabilities PepsiCo is building in Aug 2026; PepsiCo has not said how widely it runs. | Supply chain | Pilot | |
| Transportation and route optimization Ramon Laguarta said in Apr 2026 that PepsiCo is deploying AI in transportation and route optimization as part of its productivity program. | Logistics | In production | |
| Autonomous freight with Gatik Gatik's autonomous trucks, driven by what Gatik describes as an AI system, move PepsiCo products in Texas, Arizona and Arkansas under a multi-year agreement announced Jun 8, 2026, adding capacity in regional networks that PepsiCo says are hard to staff; Gatik first ran for PepsiCo in 2022. | Logistics | In production | |
| Salesforce Agentforce for sales and service PepsiCo uses Agentforce agents to manage go-to-market and business-to-business functions, give field representatives a real-time inventory view and handle customer service alongside people; PepsiCo has not said how many agents or users it runs. | Go-to-market | In production | |
| Automated store ordering Ramon Laguarta listed digital ordering systems that cut salespeople's order-taking time among the ways PepsiCo uses AI, data and technology to lower costs (Apr 2026). In Mexico, PepsiCo's MiNegocio+ app lets independent store owners order with recommendations drawn from purchasing patterns, seasonality and local demand, and Athina Kanioura said in Aug 2026 that store owners can auto-order, so sales reps who spent more than half of each visit taking orders can focus on selling. | Go-to-market | In production | |
| Pep IRiS shelf image recognition Pep IRiS scans shelf photos to show field teams gaps and misplaced products, alongside Store DNA outlet profiles and sales force automation tasks in PepsiCo's Perfect Store program (Oct 2026). | Retail execution | In production | |
| Menu by PepsiCo Menu uses AI and ordering data from DoorDash, Uber Eats, Toast and point-of-sale systems to help restaurant customers optimize their online menus, and automation let the PepsiCo Digital Lab reach more than 1 million menus by Dec 2025; an AI feature that proposes combos from purchase trends was in development. | Foodservice | In production | |
| AI-powered marketing and content PepsiCo lists AI-powered marketing in its technology program (Feb 2026), uses AWS for real-time ad performance insights, audience segmentation and personalized content across Amazon audiences (May 2025), and Ramon Laguarta said PepsiCo now creates and personalizes content in ways it could not a few years ago. | Marketing | In production | |
| Generative AI applications on PepGenX PepsiCo developers and technical teams build generative AI applications on PepGenX with a choice of foundation models and agentic capabilities through Amazon Bedrock (May 2025). | Company-wide | In production | |
| Gemini Enterprise in associates' workflows PepsiCo plans to embed Gemini Enterprise capabilities into AI-enabled workflows so associates reduce manual effort and surface insights faster, under its Apr 2026 Google Cloud agreement. | Company-wide | Announced |
Adoption
PepsiCo spread AI in layers: data, systems and cloud investment since about 2019, with a U.S. SAP rollout and connected data lakes nearly complete by Feb 2025; operational uses such as demand forecasting, route optimization, store ordering and shelf image recognition; the PepGenX generative AI platform for developers and technical teams by May 2025; and agents through Salesforce Agentforce from Jun 2025, digital twins from Jan 2026 and Google's Gemini Enterprise from Apr 2026. Athina Kanioura said in Aug 2026 that AI is now in every part of PepsiCo's business. PepsiCo has published no count of AI users, licenses or weekly active users for any tool, and its 2026 Global Code of Conduct allows only approved, vetted AI tools.
By the numbers
Rollout, first pilot to today
2019
PepsiCo started its 2019 Multi-Year Productivity Plan to automate processes and re-engineer go-to-market and information systems, and in 2024 extended it through 2030.
2020
Athina Kanioura joined PepsiCo from Accenture as Chief Strategy and Transformation Officer.
2022
Gatik began running autonomous trucks for PepsiCo.
2023
The PepsiCo Digital Lab launched Menu, a platform that now uses AI to help restaurants optimize their online menus.
Jun 2023
PepsiCo became the first consumer packaged goods company in Stanford HAI's Corporate Affiliate Program, to research responsible AI in supply chains, personalization, organizational design and sustainability.
Jun 2024
PepsiCo's data team described the PepsiCo Data Foundation on Microsoft Azure, governed with Databricks Unity Catalog, as consolidating more than 6 petabytes for more than 1,500 active users.
Oct 2024
Gatorade launched generative AI bottle design on Gatorade.com with Adobe Firefly.
Feb 2025
Ramon Laguarta said PepsiCo was almost done rolling out SAP in the U.S., had connected its data lakes, and was using digital twins to lower maintenance costs and predicted orders to guide frontline sellers.
May 2025
PepsiCo named AWS a strategic cloud provider for AI, and AWS integrated PepsiCo's PepGenX generative AI platform with Amazon Bedrock.
Jun 2025
PepsiCo announced plans to deploy Salesforce Agentforce agents in field operations, sales and customer service.
Jan 2026
PepsiCo announced digital twin pilots with Siemens and NVIDIA in U.S. plants and warehouses at CES.
Apr 2026
PepsiCo signed a multi-year Google Cloud agreement for the Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform and Gemini Enterprise.
Jun 2026
PepsiCo and Gatik signed a multi-year autonomous freight agreement covering Texas, Arizona and Arkansas.
Aug 2026
Athina Kanioura said AI is now in every part of PepsiCo's business and that PepsiCo is building agents on digital twins for real-time recommendations.
Economics & controls
Spend and ROI
Technology budget
PepsiCo does not disclose a technology or AI budget. PepsiCo planned capital spending below 5% of net revenue for 2026 (Dec 2025), and its Feb 2026 investor presentation listed IT harmonization, automation and digitization within 2025 capital spending. Ramon Laguarta said in Oct 2025 that five years of technology investment had been a cost in PepsiCo's P&L and that PepsiCo could now benefit by applying AI to the data infrastructure it had built.
What AI itself costs
PepsiCo has not disclosed what it spends on AI models, cloud AI services or its agreements with AWS, Google Cloud, Salesforce, Siemens and NVIDIA.
Reported ROI
PepsiCo reports no firm-level figure for AI. The only AI return PepsiCo has quantified comes from its digital twin pilots with Siemens and NVIDIA: a 20% throughput increase on initial deployment (Jan 2026); the 10% to 15% lower capital expenditure cited with it is PepsiCo's estimate, according to Siemens. When an analyst asked on the Oct 8, 2026 earnings call how AI was helping productivity, PepsiCo's answer gave no AI figure. PepsiCo reported record productivity savings in 2025 and expects another record in 2026, and Ramon Laguarta said in Feb 2026 that gross productivity doubled from 2021 to 2025, but PepsiCo credits those savings to automation, digitalization, Global Capability Centers, network optimization, value engineering and simplification together, listing technology and AI deployment as one lever (Feb 2026).
Productivity program
PepsiCo's 2019 Multi-Year Productivity Plan, extended in 2024 through 2030, simplifies, harmonizes and automates processes and re-engineers go-to-market and information systems. PepsiCo expects about $6.15 billion of pre-tax charges under the plan, covering severance, asset impairments and other costs, with $3.6 billion incurred through Dec 27, 2025, and about $900 million expected in 2026. PepsiCo also expects at least 100 basis points of core operating margin expansion over the three fiscal years from 2026, aided by more automation, digitalization and simplification (Dec 2025).
Headcount
PepsiCo employed about 306,000 people at Dec 27, 2025, about 125,000 of them in the U.S. PepsiCo closed three plants and several lines in 2025 and was cutting nearly 20% of U.S. SKUs (Dec 2025), and in Oct 2026 said it was identifying further structural cost cuts, including corporate costs. PepsiCo's 2025 and 2026 earnings materials do not attribute job cuts to AI, and Athina Kanioura described AI in Aug 2026 as giving PepsiCo's people much more help.
Governance and risk
Responsible AI policy
PepsiCo's 2026 Global Code of Conduct says its Global Responsible AI Policy sets the principles and protocols for deploying AI in a fair, reliable, secure, safe and compliant way. PepsiCo staff, contractors and third parties may use only approved, vetted AI tools, must learn a tool's limits before using it, must verify AI-generated outcomes independently, and can raise concerns through a Responsible AI mailbox and portal.
Personal data and biometrics
PepsiCo requires any AI use that involves personal data to follow its Global Responsible AI Policy and Global Privacy Policy and to complete a risk assessment, and systems that process biometric data such as fingerprints or facial recognition must follow a Global Biometrics Privacy Policy (2026 Global Code of Conduct).
Board oversight
PepsiCo's board receives updates from outside experts on trends including digitalization and AI, and the full board oversees cybersecurity through regular briefings from the Chief Strategy and Transformation Officer and the Chief Information Security Officer that cover the threat landscape, including AI (2026 proxy). PepsiCo assesses its cybersecurity program against a NIST framework (2025 Form 10-K).
Disclosed risks
PepsiCo's 2025 Form 10-K lists AI-related risks: AI shopping agents that may choose competitors' products, generative AI that makes cyberattacks more sophisticated, privacy regulators' new interpretations for AI, infringement claims from PepsiCo's own AI use, and evolving AI regulation that could raise costs or limit how PepsiCo uses the technology.
Research and skills
PepsiCo joined Stanford HAI's Corporate Affiliate Program in Jun 2023 to research responsible AI in consumer goods, with Athina Kanioura saying AI should augment the human experience. PepsiCo's Future-Ready Workforce learning portfolio teaches employees cloud computing, AI and machine learning.
Recent signals
Oct 21, 2026
PepsiCo described its Perfect Store program for retailers, including Store DNA outlet profiles and Pep IRiS shelf image recognition, and said it is investing in AI to find more granular opportunities and anticipate how categories change.
Sep 2026
PepsiCo confirmed to Adweek that it chose Publicis Groupe as its lead global media partner across more than 200 markets, to build a media model underpinned by AI and data; PepsiCo's Oct 8 remarks said the partnership aims at cost savings and a better return on marketing investment.
Aug 31, 2026
Athina Kanioura said AI is now in every part of PepsiCo's business, that store owners can auto-order through an app, and that PepsiCo is building agents on digital twins for recommendations, root-cause analysis, predictive maintenance and inventory forecasts.
Aug 2026
Ad Age reported that PepsiCo had opened a global review for an AI marketing transformation partner, drawing agency groups and management consultancies.
Jun 8, 2026
PepsiCo and Gatik signed a multi-year agreement for autonomous trucks, run by what Gatik calls an AI system, in PepsiCo's North America regional freight networks, already operating in Texas, Arizona and Arkansas.
Jun 2026
Databricks listed Magesh Bagavathi, PepsiCo's Global Chief Data and AI Officer, among the keynote speakers at its Data + AI Summit, and SiliconANGLE reported that PepsiCo had adopted a Databricks lakehouse to unify its data as a base for analytics and AI.
May 6, 2026
Ramon Laguarta told shareholders that AI is transforming every aspect of PepsiCo's industry and that PepsiCo uses AI to rethink its go-to-market model and customer support.
Apr 22, 2026
PepsiCo signed a multi-year Google Cloud agreement to use the Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform and move workloads to Google Cloud under its multi-cloud strategy.
Apr 16, 2026
Ramon Laguarta said PepsiCo is deploying AI in its supply chain, transportation and route optimization and moving to digital ordering systems that cut salespeople's order-taking time.
Feb 18, 2026
Ramon Laguarta told investors at CAGNY that PepsiCo is ready for a much faster rollout of technology, citing automated ordering, integrated business planning and digital twins; PepsiCo's presentation also listed AI-powered marketing.
Feb 3, 2026
PepsiCo listed accelerating technology and AI deployment among its 2026 productivity initiatives, and its 2025 Form 10-K lists AI shopping agents among its risk factors.
Jan 6, 2026
PepsiCo announced digital twin pilots with Siemens and NVIDIA at CES, reporting 20% more throughput on initial deployment and an estimated 10% to 15% cut in capital expenditure.
Dec 15, 2025
PepsiCo named Athina Kanioura CEO of Latin America Foods, effective Dec 28, 2025, while she keeps her role as Chief Strategy & Transformation Officer.
Quick answers
- How does PepsiCo deploy AI?
- PepsiCo deploys AI through cloud and software partners: PepGenX, its internal generative AI platform, draws on foundation models through Amazon Bedrock, Google's Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform was added in Apr 2026, and Salesforce Agentforce supports sales and customer service. Athina Kanioura, Chief Strategy & Transformation Officer and CEO of Latin America Foods, owns the program, which spans supply chain planning, digital twins built with Siemens and NVIDIA, store ordering and marketing. PepsiCo has published a business return only for its digital twin pilots.
- What does PepsiCo use AI for?
- PepsiCo has not published a count of its AI use cases. PepsiCo executives name AI in supply chain planning and demand forecasting, plant and warehouse digital twins, transportation and route optimization, autonomous freight, store ordering, shelf image recognition, Salesforce Agentforce agents for sales and service, marketing content, and the Menu platform for restaurants. PepsiCo has published a business return only for its Siemens and NVIDIA digital twin pilots, a 20% throughput gain on initial deployment (Jan 2026), and reports no firm-level AI return: it credits its record productivity savings to automation, digitalization and simplification together, with AI as one lever.
- Who leads AI at PepsiCo?
- AI at PepsiCo is led by Athina Kanioura (CEO, Latin America Foods, and EVP, Chief Strategy & Transformation Officer); Magesh Bagavathi (Global Chief Data and AI Officer). Ownership of AI on the org chart: Athina Kanioura, Chief Strategy & Transformation Officer, also CEO of Latin America Foods.
- What AI platform does PepsiCo use?
- PepGenX, PepsiCo's internal generative AI platform, gives developers and technical teams a choice of foundation models through Amazon Bedrock (May 2025), and PepsiCo added Google's Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform in Apr 2026.
- Which AI models does PepsiCo use?
- PepsiCo buys its models: foundation models through Amazon Bedrock, Google Gemini through Gemini Enterprise, and Salesforce Agentforce agents. PepsiCo has not named the models behind PepGenX.
- How many PepsiCo employees use AI?
- PepsiCo has not published how many of its about 306,000 employees use AI tools; Google Cloud said in Apr 2026 that Gemini Enterprise puts AI in the hands of PepsiCo's global workforce.
- How far has AI spread at PepsiCo?
- PepsiCo sits at Piloting: a named executive, Athina Kanioura, owns AI, and Databricks named Magesh Bagavathi as PepsiCo's Global Chief Data and AI Officer in Jun 2026; PepGenX, its generative AI platform, is open to developers and technical teams; a Global Responsible AI Policy limits staff to approved tools; and AI runs in production in forecasting, store ordering, shelf image recognition, sales and service agents, and a restaurant menu platform. PepsiCo falls short of Scaling because it has not shown a company-wide AI tool open to most of its about 306,000 employees (the Gemini Enterprise rollout was announced in Apr 2026 with no user count), has published no count of use cases, and reports a business return only for its digital twin pilots.
Open questions
- How many of PepsiCo's about 306,000 employees have access to PepGenX or Gemini Enterprise, and how many use them each week?
- Which models run behind PepGenX, and does PepsiCo run any models in its own data centers or on clouds other than AWS and Google Cloud?
- What share of PepsiCo's record productivity savings in 2025 and 2026 comes from AI, as opposed to plant closures, SKU cuts, automation and shared services?
- What does PepsiCo spend on technology and on AI each year, including its AWS, Google Cloud and Salesforce agreements?
- How widely has PepsiCo deployed Salesforce Agentforce, in which markets and functions, and with what return?
- Will the 20% throughput gain hold as PepsiCo scales digital twins beyond its U.S. pilots, how many sites are covered, and has the estimated 10% to 15% capital expenditure cut been realized?
- What does Magesh Bagavathi's role as Global Chief Data and AI Officer cover and to whom does he report, and who are PepsiCo's CIO and CISO?
- What business return do PepsiCo's deployed tools without published figures deliver, such as Menu, automated store ordering, Pep IRiS, demand forecasting and Gatik's autonomous trucks?
- How does Gemini Enterprise relate to PepGenX: does it replace the in-house platform for some users or sit alongside it?
- What will PepsiCo's North America supply chain and go-to-market update, promised for late 2026 or early 2027, say about AI and headcount?
Sources
PepsiCo
- Leadership
- Athina Kanioura, biography
- Ramon Laguarta, biography
- Ram Krishnan, biography
- Business Transformation
- Athina Kanioura talks agentic AI and digital-first customer engagement (Aug 31, 2026)
- Helping retailers shape the future of the shopper experience (Oct 21, 2026)
- MiNegocio+ for independent retailers in Mexico (Sep 16, 2026)
- Digital twin AI in operations, Made Possible video (Jul 22, 2026)
- PepsiCo and Gatik multi-year autonomous freight agreement (Jun 8, 2026)
- PepsiCo deepens AI capabilities with Google Cloud (Apr 22, 2026)
- AI and digital twin collaboration with Siemens and NVIDIA (Jan 6, 2026)
- Organizational changes to accelerate growth (Dec 15, 2025)
- Menu by PepsiCo: smarter menus, stronger connections (Dec 9, 2025)
- Salesforce Agentforce deployment (Jun 24, 2025)
- PepsiCo and AWS collaborate on digital transformation (May 7, 2025)
- Gatorade generative AI bottle personalization (Oct 2024)
- Collaboration with Stanford HAI on responsible AI (Jun 29, 2023)
- Global Code of Conduct (2026)
- Employee experience and Future-Ready Workforce learning
- PepsiCo careers: technology career areas
Filings and investor materials
- PepsiCo 2025 Form 10-K (filed Feb 3, 2026)
- PepsiCo 2026 proxy statement (Mar 27, 2026)
- Q3 2026 prepared management remarks (Oct 8, 2026)
- Q3 2026 earnings call transcript, Motley Fool via Webull (Oct 8, 2026)
- Q2 2026 earnings call transcript (Jul 9, 2026)
- 2026 Annual Meeting of Shareholders transcript (May 6, 2026)
- Q1 2026 earnings call transcript (Apr 16, 2026)
- CAGNY 2026 transcript (Feb 18, 2026)
- CAGNY 2026 presentation (Feb 2026)
- Q4 and full-year 2025 prepared management remarks (Feb 3, 2026)
- Business update transcript (Dec 9, 2025)
- Priorities to enhance shareholder value and preliminary 2026 outlook, Form 8-K exhibit (Dec 8, 2025)
- Q3 2025 earnings call transcript (Oct 9, 2025)
- CAGNY 2025 transcript (Feb 19, 2025)
Partners
- Amazon: PepsiCo and AWS collaborate (May 7, 2025)
- Google Cloud Press Corner: PepsiCo deepens AI capabilities with Google Cloud (Apr 22, 2026)
- Siemens: PepsiCo reimagines supply chain performance through digital twins and AI (Jan 14, 2026)
- Gatik: PepsiCo and Gatik multi-year agreement (Jun 8, 2026)
- Databricks: Data + AI Summit 2026 keynote lineup (Jun 2, 2026)
- Databricks: Data + AI Summit 2026 speaker page, Magesh Bagavathi
- Databricks: How PepsiCo established an enterprise data platform with Unity Catalog (Jun 6, 2024)
- Databricks Community: PepsiCo customer story, Azure Databricks SQL and Unity Catalog (Apr 16, 2026)
- IBM elects Ramon L. Laguarta to its board (Jan 30, 2026)
Data confidence
- Confirmed
- Stated in a primary or reputable public source.
- Estimated
- Derived or approximated from public reporting.
- Unconfirmed
- Reported, but not yet corroborated.
PepsiCo profile · Enterprise AI diffusion report by Imagine · facts checked against their sources on Nov 1, 2026
