Unlocking AI for NextGen Growth 2030 at Holcim

HOLCIM’S AI USE FOR PEOPLE AND THE PLANET

So the value of AI is clear. Yet for all the justifiable excitement around it, the most important thing for Holcim is that AI must benefit people and the planet. Our digital progress must reflect our deepest human values: fairness, trust and prosperity.

The future of sustainable construction will be human-led and AI-enabled. This is the principle that guides Holcim’s use of AI to drive performance and create value for our people, customers and shareholders.

Holcim is actively upskilling its people - from early career to senior leaders - with AI-focused training and tools to help them be more productive, collaborate more easily and make better decisions – freeing up time for collaboration, innovation, and problem solving.

We’re incubating AI at Holcim through Holcim University – nurturing talent from early career to senior leaders – while our AI Community of Practice is an AI knowledge and collaboration hub. At the same time, we’re partnering with AI hyperscalers, startups, universities and other experts.

To ensure that AI is used lawfully, responsibly and effectively, Holcim's approach to responsible AI includes an AI Directive, AI Solutions Inventory and AI Governance Council – mechanisms that mitigate risk and promote ethical implementation.

Holcim is unlocking the potential of AI across four core business functions:

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PRODUCTION
 

Taking Production first, here we want to drive manufacturing and procurement excellence.

Through Plants of Tomorrow, Holcim’s Industry 4.0 program, I’ve seen during my own site visits how we’re modernizing our global network of plants by integrating advanced technologies from AI to robotics to create connected, smart and energy-efficient plants that use digital solutions to support decarbonization, while upskilling our people to deliver value.

Holcim has deployed AI in more than 100 plants across all markets, and Holcim M-Predict is just one solution that we're using. The platform uses machine learning and smart sensors to enable real-time monitoring of the health of critical equipment - predicting failures up to 90 days in advance as well as maintenance needs - minimizing downtime, maximizing efficiency and extending asset life.

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LOGISTICS
 

My colleague Elodie Robin and her teams in Logistics work tirelessly to optimize our planning, forecasting and execution to ensure our supply chains are more resilient and customer centric.

Every year, Holcim moves millions of tons of materials by truck, ship and rail. We’re increasing efficiency in logistics through AI-driven demand planning and inventory forecasting, as well as network optimization tools and digital twins, which optimize our logistics network and routings.

Holcim Foresight is a tool that we’re looking to roll out across all our markets by the end of 2026. It uses AI-powered forecasting models for sales and inventory – optimizing our fleet and network utilization. 

The tool ensures efficiency and responsiveness in supply chains across our countries in real time, enabling better volume prediction and alignment between sales, production and logistics It also ensures more more reliable deliveries for customers, and reduced costs and emissions.

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COMMERCIAL
 

In Commercial, AI helps us create a superior quality customer experience through always-on digital channels, and we’re integrating several AI capabilities into a unified commercial engine with customer relationship management (CRM) as its main digital backbone.

Our Holcim+ platform is an AI-powered customer platform that combines integrated forecasting, planning, ordering and delivery with real-time tracking 24/7, while the Holcim+ AI Ordering Assistant enables customers to manage their business with us via messaging apps including WhatsApp, Viber and Telegram.

It's live in Spain, where 89% of customers using our the AI assistant place an order - proof of the tool’s quality, convenience, and of how AI is changing the way we interact with customers. The tool is being launched in Poland and Egypt and we aim to roll it out further by the end of 2026.

We have other AI tools in Commercial to support tendering, offering and negotiations, as well as improve the productivity of our sales teams.

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ADMINISTRATION
 

Using AI in Administration we're already simplifying processes and boosting productivity – giving execution power to our people to anticipate projects, control inventories, prioritize health and safety and more.

One great example is CareerHub, our AI-powered talent marketplace for Holcim’s more than 45 000 people worldwide. Alongside my colleagues I can use this platform for my personal and career growth. We can discover projects and jobs, as well as learning and networking opportunities to create value and nurture talent.

Additionally, Predict AU – which has been rolled out to every Holcim site globally through Holcim's Boots on the Ground app – is the world’s first visual safety incident prediction and prevention tool. By enabling us to detect sites with a high probability of a critical incident, it allows us to trigger early interventions. 

Predict AU processes over 110 000 real-world safety inputs monthly, evaluating these against a predictive framework built on more than 10 million historical risk combinations.

AI AT HOLCIM HAS IMMENSE POTENTIAL
 

These are just a few examples of tools we’re using. We’ve entered a new era where AI will be increasingly deeply embedded in every aspect of Holcim’s business. This has immense potential to create value for people, customers and shareholders.

We’re at the start of a really exciting journey, and I’m excited to see what the future holds.