Unilever Deploys NOVA AI Agents for Order Processing

Unilever launched NOVA, a system of AI agents built with Microsoft Foundry, as Microsoft detailed in a company blog post. The system processes orders submitted through emails, PDFs, spreadsheets and photos of paper forms.

NOVA uses five agents. Four read each email, interpret its context and extract order information, while a fifth checks the work. Orders with missing information or other exceptions go to staff for review.

Across 11 pilot markets, NOVA has reduced the first stage of order processing from 15 to 20 minutes to about 90 seconds. Unilever says orders are processed eight times faster and 95% require no manual handling. Refund claims take half as long to process, while new customer onboarding time has fallen by 90%.

NOVA has processed thousands of orders in production. Unilever plans to expand the system to more than 50 markets. Francis Castro, head of technology for customer operations, said the wider goal is more connected operations across forecasting, planning, logistics and order-to-cash.