"AI is a powerful accelerator, but AI on broken or fragmented processes doesn't create value," said AJ Wijesinghe, Chief AI Officer and SVP – GBS+. That was the standpoint Ecolab's GBS+ organization maintained when scaling automation across a function spanning five countries and capabilities from finance and supply chain to HR, legal, and procurement.
Rapid growth and multiple acquisitions had left fragmented data, overlapping ERP and CRM systems, and workflows that required multiple handoffs to complete a single process. Rather than layering AI onto that complexity, Ecolab worked with ServiceNow to build a unified orchestration layer first, connecting existing systems behind a single point of entry without wholesale replacement.
The result: $150M in value leakage reduction, $100M+ in annual savings, and seven to ten hours per person per month returned to the business.
Key takeaways
- Why process comes before AI: Fixing inefficient or broken processes has to come before scaling AI across a business. Learn how Ecolab applied that principle to its roadmap.
- Integration without replacement: Find out how a clean connection layer across the enterprise allowed Ecolab to standardize workflows and cut rework, while keeping the ERP and CRM platforms inherited through acquisition.
- Measurable automation in financial operations: Inquiry automation moved from 0% to 60%. Discover the full scale of automation rates achieved across customer master data, check processing, and virtual credit cards.
Featuring insights from: Steve Rudderham, SVP – GBS+, Ecolab and AJ Wijesinghe, Chief AI Officer and SVP – GBS+, Ecolab
Download the spotlight to understand how Ecolab built an AI-ready foundation that saves time, cuts costs, and scales innovation.