PepsiCo deploys AI across farming, supply chain and workforce, sourcing 95% of ingredients locally in China while scaling tools to 320,000 employees.
PepsiCo is deploying artificial intelligence across its global operations — from the fields where its ingredients are grown to the screens where its 320,000 employees work — as the beverage and snack giant moves to embed the technology into the core of how it produces, distributes and sells its products worldwide.
Speaking at the China Development Forum in Beijing, Anne Tse, PepsiCo’s Asia Pacific chief executive, said the company sources 95% of its ingredients locally in China and is using AI-powered precision agriculture to help farmers in its supply chain apply water, fertilizer and pesticides only where and when needed. The company is also adapting its products to local tastes — reducing sugar and sodium content and aligning flavors with Chinese culinary traditions — as it navigates a geopolitical environment that has prompted many multinationals to localize their operations more aggressively.
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The agricultural applications are part of a broader AI strategy that Jim Andrew, PepsiCo’s chief sustainability officer, described as starting with human value rather than technology for its own sake. Writing at the sidelines of Nvidia’s GTC 2026 conference in San Jose, where he joined a panel on AI and sustainability, Andrew said the company’s tools are designed for use in fields, plants and stores rather than offices — built for agronomists diagnosing crop disease, plant operators managing production lines and delivery drivers optimizing routes.
Internally, PepsiCo has standardized AI tools across more than 320,000 employees in over 200 countries. According to a Microsoft case study, the rollout has achieved 90% to 95% daily usage of Microsoft Copilot, with measurable time savings across meetings, email and file management — a deployment scale that few companies of any size have matched.
The company’s AI strategy sits within its broader sustainability program, which ties artificial intelligence to environmental and operational goals: reducing emissions on deliveries, improving water efficiency in agriculture and strengthening supply chain resilience in markets where climate volatility is increasing.
The wider food and beverage industry is watching closely. AI adoption in the sector is projected to reach $179.8 billion by 2032, according to industry forecasts, but 44% of companies remain in the pilot phase — a gap that analysts say is widening rather than closing as early adopters compound their advantages.
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PepsiCo’s combination of localized supply chains, precision agriculture and enterprise-wide AI deployment positions it as one of the more advanced examples of large-scale AI adoption in the consumer goods sector — less a single transformative product than a systematic embedding of intelligence across every stage of how a global company operates.
