Reckitt Benckiser Group (LON:RKT) executives used an investor “Focus On” event to outline how the company is applying digital science, artificial intelligence and predictive modeling across its innovation process, saying the capabilities are intended to support faster product development, stronger launch execution and efficiency gains.
Shannon Eisenhardt, Reckitt’s chief financial officer, said the company’s digital science work is tied to its broader strategy of focusing on 11 “power brands” and delivering long-term financial commitments. She said the presentation was not intended to introduce new financial targets, but to provide more visibility into how Reckitt operates.
Digital science embedded across innovation
Dr. Angela Naef, Reckitt’s chief R&D officer, said the company has been building its digital science capabilities since 2020, including proprietary data, brand-specific models and changes to how teams work. Reckitt’s global R&D organization includes more than 4,000 scientific and technical professionals, she said.
Naef described digital science as a combination of predictive science, simulation and generative AI applied across the product life cycle: ideation, development, launch, activation and optimization. She said the approach is designed to help Reckitt “prove value earlier, fail faster when something won’t win, and scale what works with more precision.”
Reckitt said it has moved from fewer than 100 virtual experiments a year three years ago to more than 10,000 virtual experiments since January. Naef said digital science tools are now deployed across all of Reckitt’s power brands and in more than 20 markets, with more than 2,000 colleagues across R&D and marketing trained on the capabilities.
Naef also said Reckitt’s average innovation project size in 2026 has grown by about 25% year-over-year, measured by expected incremental net revenue. The power brands pipeline, measured by net revenue from innovations, has increased by more than 1.5 times since mid-2023, she said. Reckitt launched 29 new innovations in the first quarter of 2026, about 20% more than in the same period a year earlier.
Examples across Vanish, Lysol, Gaviscon and Dettol
Bastien Parizot, Reckitt’s SVP of global business services and AI transformation, highlighted Vanish as an example of digital science in the ideation stage. The company said its “digital active learning” approach helped support the launch of Vanish Turbo by combining computational modeling, consumer insights and formula optimization. Keyla Lazardi, SVP of germ protection and household care, said the approach reduced the error rate in predicting consumer perception by 75% and increased overall consumer liking from 8.4 to 9.1. Parizot said the product delivered about 6% net revenue growth with a core U.K. retailer after activation.
For Lysol Air Sanitizer, Reckitt said it used digital science and computational design while working with experts in aerobiology and the U.S. EPA to establish testing methods for reducing viruses and bacteria in the air. Jan Vindberg-Larsen, SVP for regulatory affairs and safety, said the example showed how Reckitt uses computational design to create “evidence-led innovation.” Reckitt said Lysol Air Sanitizer grew net revenue by about 20% in 2025, now contributes a mid-single-digit percentage of net revenue to the Lysol portfolio, and carries a gross margin premium of about 100 basis points.
Mark Ripley, SVP of self care and intimate wellness, discussed the use of digital twins in Gaviscon manufacturing. He said virtual replicas of products, equipment and processes allow Reckitt to simulate scale-up before committing capital, time and resources. Naef said a small batch at Gaviscon’s Hull site costs about £25,000 and 30 person hours, while a large factory-scale batch costs more than £100,000 and requires more than 300 person hours. She said trials can now be simulated in under two hours.
Reckitt also pointed to a redesigned Dettol antiseptic liquid bottle as an example of using 3D modeling and simulation to improve packaging. The company said the bottle uses PET, has greater recyclability attributes than the prior bottle, can deliver up to 400 tons of plastic savings, improve pallet efficiency by up to 33% and save around £5 million per year.
AI platform and WriteIt tool
Parizot also described WriteIt, Reckitt’s GxP-compliant AI platform for document drafting, literature searches and protocol generation. He said documentation historically consumed 30% to 40% of R&D time. WriteIt can make drafting and reviewing industrial trial reports up to eight times faster, he said.
Reckitt said more than 650 R&D users had been trained on WriteIt by February 2026, with plans to extend training to more than 2,000 users, or roughly half of the R&D community, during the rest of the year.
Nigel Richardson, Reckitt’s chief information and digitisation officer, said the company began investing in cloud and data foundations in 2020 and started its generative AI transformation in 2024. He said Reckitt’s data and AI platform, called Trinity, powers scalable AI applications and is designed with compliance controls. Richardson said Reckitt’s AI approach is based on business-led decisions, disciplined investment, capability building and scalable infrastructure.
Governance, adoption and next steps
During a question-and-answer session, executives said adoption of AI tools has involved both excitement and skepticism. Parizot said co-designing tools with teams and keeping “human in the lead” helped drive acceptance. Naef said R&D leadership approached generative AI as a learning opportunity and made tools part of the organization’s broader toolbox.
Executives also said Reckitt’s advantage comes from applying AI to proprietary consumer data, product knowledge and market context rather than relying on generic tools. Richardson said Reckitt uses a responsible AI framework developed with its legal team and maintains human accountability for AI-supported work.
Naef announced that Reckitt plans to open a new global science and innovation center in Shanghai in July. She said the hub will include capabilities such as live streaming, consumer co-creation, sensory testing, advanced material science, claims development, microbiology, predictive simulation and scale-up support.
About Reckitt Benckiser Group (LON:RKT)
At Reckitt, we protect, heal and nurture. We are the company behind some of the world’s best known and most trusted Health and Hygiene consumer brands.
Delivering for a cleaner, healthier world requires strong brands with a global footprint. From Dettol, Lysol, Durex, Finish, Harpic and Vanish, Mucinex, Nurofen, Gaviscon, Veet and Strepsils, consumers love and rely on our brands to care for their families, as they have done for over 200 years.
We use our scientific expertise and deep human understanding to develop solutions to help people improve their lives – that is why over 30 million Reckitt products are sold each day worldwide.
At Reckitt, we’re all making a real difference to people all over the world, every day.
