McCormick & Company built its business on a global sourcing network that stretches from smallholder farmers in Asia and Africa to manufacturing plants in North America, Europe, and Australia.
The company sells spices, seasonings, and flavor solutions in more than 150 countries. In recent years, that footprint has become harder to manage. Volatile crop yields, freight disruptions, cost inflation, and uneven regional demand have stressed McCormick’s supply chain and pressured margins.
The company has begun replacing its planning infrastructure with AI-driven systems. The shift is part of a broad digital transformation that McCormick’s leadership has been outlining since 2023, moving from using AI for product innovation to embedding it in the core operations that run the business.
AI Enters Day-to-Day Operations
McCormick’s first public use of AI dates back to its 2019 collaboration with IBM Research. The company said the project applied machine learning to decades of sensory and consumer data to accelerate flavor development. IBM described the system as a model that could “predict new flavor combinations” and cut development cycles for seasoning blends. McCormick released its first AI-generated consumer product line (ONE Seasoning Mixes) later that year.
That work established McCormick’s internal data discipline. But it did not address the operational fragility exposed by the COVID-19 pandemic, global logistics congestion, and sustained commodity inflation. Between 2020 and 2024, McCormick reported higher material costs across several categories in its annual filings. The company used pricing and productivity programs to offset some of the impact, but supply volatility persisted.
By late 2023, McCormick began signaling a shift toward broader digital transformation. Its Chief Information and Digital Officer, Guy Peri, described a push to modernize infrastructure and expand the use of AI and analytics across the enterprise. In an interview published in 2024, Peri said the company was integrating “AI automated tools” into global IT operations as part of a large-scale modernization effort supported by Cognizant.
The company’s AI adoption broadened through internal initiatives in 2024 and 2025. Peri said employees submitted more than 50 AI use cases in an internal challenge focused on operations, forecasting, and procurement. He described AI as part of a shift toward “data-driven decision-making” tied to operational efficiency.
A New Model for Global Planning
The most significant change came this month, when McCormick adopted OMP’s “Unison Planning” platform for global operational planning. The company announced it would use OMP’s AI-driven system to manage production, inventory, and service levels across its major regions.
The scope is broad. McCormick is integrating OMP with its SAP ERP environment to synchronize demand, supply, materials, and factory capacity. The system handles both make-to-stock and assemble-to-order workflows, which share production lines at several McCormick facilities. OMP describes its platform as using optimization and “agentic AI” to simulate demand patterns, recommend production plans, and guide planners toward cost- and service-efficient decisions.
The company’s Vice President of Global Planning and Logistics said the initiative is part of a long-term digital roadmap focused on efficiency and responsiveness. He said the AI-driven model would help the company “optimize cost, cash, and service” across regions while improving agility in a volatile operating environment.
McCormick began its implementation in Canada and the United States and plans to extend deployment to EMEA and Asia-Pacific. The company said early objectives include improving capacity planning, managing regional demand fluctuations, and optimizing inventory projections, including quality-based stock releases.
The strategy mirrors a broader shift across the consumer goods industry. Unilever, Nestlé, and other global food manufacturers have deployed AI for demand forecasting, inventory optimization, and production planning. Supply-chain software providers including Blue Yonder and Kinaxis have reported increased adoption of AI-driven “autonomous planning” across FMCG and food companies.
For McCormick, the supply-chain transformation is tied directly to financial results. In its 2024 annual report, the company said it generated $922 million in operating cash flow and used a cost-savings program to expand margins. Management said it would continue investing in brand support and digital capabilities to improve responsiveness and productivity.
The OMP rollout is a shift toward more automated and integrated planning. Traditional monthly S&OP processes depend heavily on manual adjustments and are slow to react to changes in demand or material availability. AI-supported operational planning can shorten planning cycles and reduce the need for manual intervention in routine decisions.
The company has not published performance metrics tied to the new system. Large AI-enabled supply-chain transformations typically take years to implement and depend on data quality, system integration, and organizational adoption. In the food and flavor sector, companies must maintain human oversight for safety, quality, and regulatory compliance.
McCormick is among the first large North American food manufacturers to publicize an AI-driven operational planning system of this scope, as it looks to blunt the effects of supply-chain volatility.
