---
title: "Bernardo Tavares: Inside the Architecture to Scale Enterprise AI and Predictive Data at Kenvue"
url: "https://authoritymag.co/articles/bernardo-tavares-inside-the-architecture-to-scale-enterprise-ai-and-predictive-data-at-kenvue"
publisher: "Authority Magazine"
author: "Chad Silverstein"
authorUrl: "https://authoritymag.co/authors/chad-silverstein"
interviewee: "Bernardo Tavares"
company: "Kenvue"
category: "Tech"
datePublished: "2025-02-14T10:37:50.009Z"
dateModified: "2026-11-12T17:06:09.386Z"
tags: "Tech"
---

# Bernardo Tavares: Inside the Architecture to Scale Enterprise AI and Predictive Data at Kenvue

*Kenvue's Chief Technology & Data Officer discusses how predictive modeling, retail optimization, and careful upskilling are transforming global consumer health operations.*

> One I think is still very relevant, resulting from an unsuccessful commercial program, is the need to watch out for confirmation bias in decision making.

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In*the ever-evolving and never-ending landscape of business, staying ahead of the curve is a prerequisite for success. Artificial Intelligence (AI) has gone from being a futuristic concept to a daily business tool that executives can’t ignore. In this interview series, we would like to talk with business leaders who’ve successfully integrated AI into their operations, transforming their companies in the process. I had the pleasure of interviewing Bernardo Tavares, Chief Technology & Data Officer at Kenvue.*

*Bernardo Tavares is the Chief Technology & Data Officer for Kenvue. In this role, Bernardo oversees the Information Technology and Data Science groups and, as key enablers of innovation and growth, leads the data and technology agenda by scaling digital capabilities to better serve customers and consumers.*

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**Thank you so much for doing this with us! To set the stage, tell us briefly about your childhood and background.**

Thank you for having me! I grew up in Belo Horizonte, Brazil, the youngest of five siblings and a large extended family. Thanks to that environment, I was exposed to a culture of curiosity and learning from an early age. In 1984 I fell in love with technology and later became an electronic engineer at University of Sao Paulo, starting my career as a Hardware and Software designer at IBM. This was a formative experience for me in product management and applied innovation. Later I pivoted to the consumer world and I had a rewarding global career since as a regional and global CIO. As I grew and continued to learn with colleagues and mentors, I learned the importance of clarity of purpose, focus on talent and culture and great execution every day. Now, as the Chief Technology & Data Officer for Kenvue, I am excited to leverage the power of applied technology and predictive data in service of our consumers and customers around the world.

**What were the early challenges you faced in your career, and how did they shape your approach to leadership?**

Early on in my study and work as an engineer, I think it was about learning how to learn when given limited information and tools. Often in the lab I was given a manual about new standards or technologies and we had to collaborate to contribute to those standards while coming up with working products we could bring to market.

Next, when living through globalization in CPG and Healthcare, I learned the importance of not confusing size and scale, and to always keep an outside-in focus, balancing what we do and how we do it — so we consistently simplify while staying nimble.

Last but not least, especially in these exponential times we live in, is about talent: attracting, engaging and enabling high performance by setting the right tone, culture and shared purpose — and it has to relate to improving people’s lives and the world around us. That’s why I’m so excited for our journey at Kenvue as a leader in consumer health.

**We often learn the most from our mistakes. Can you share one mistake that turned out to be one of the most valuable lessons you’ve learned?**

I learn every day and mistakes are a gift that ensures we continue to grow and be the best at what we do through continuous improvement. I can think of quite a few teachable moments in my career, for sure. One I think is still very relevant, resulting from an unsuccessful commercial program, is the need to watch out for confirmation bias in decision making. I learned to counter that by ensuring all voices feel heard and that team members are comfortable expressing dissent, with team norms that blend high-performance expectations, courage and psychological safety.

**AI is a big leap for many businesses. When and what first sparked your interest in incorporating it into your operations?**

We’re nearing the point where almost all companies, no matter the size, will need to incorporate AI into their organizations. While that can certainly scale up or down depending on the need, AI is quickly becoming integral to running a business. At Kenvue, we looked at the cost/benefit of adding AI-backed solutions into our organization and found that these tools can not only help create efficiencies throughout the company but can lead to significant value contribution as well.

For example, demand for our products is always changing, making accurate forecasts essential to providing consumers with the self-care products they need in a timely fashion. This is one of the first use cases of AI within Kenvue, combining data science with the new technology to help our teams determine where product needs are and how to best adjust our future plans and forecasts to shift inventory and, if needed, ramp up production. This is just a small example of the edge AI technology provides one team within our company, so when you apply this across the organization, the benefits quickly begin to show their value.

Another example is that in order to drive excellence at the retail shelf, we have to ensure high product availability for the shoppers. A low OSA (On-Shelf Availability) can lead to lost sales and shopper attrition. We have built an AI based solution that looks at SKU level sales patterns on a daily basis for each retail store and identifies stores where there is a potential for stock out. This helps us to preempt shelf out-of-stock situations and reduce lost sales.

**AI can be a game-changer for individuals and their responsibilities. Can you share how you personally use AI and what are your go-to resources or tools?**

The explosion of ChatGPT really brought generative AI into the day-to-day lives of millions of users around the world. At this point, the technology firmly plays a role in how we live, whether we realize it or not. From using generative AI platforms at work to help summarize meeting minutes, or in my personal life to help make recommendations on movies or songs I might like, I’m constantly interacting with AI in one form or another. As the technology behind the products continues to improve, usage will only grow.

**On the flip side, what challenges or setbacks have you encountered while implementing AI into your company?**

When implementing generative AI solutions, two of the biggest hurdles for any company include upskilling employees and ensuring your organization has protocols in place to ensure the accuracy and reliability of the data sets.

AI is revolutionizing the way we work, but it’s only as impactful as the person using it and the data set training it. It is part of our responsibility, as the technology & data function, to not only ensure that the solutions work correctly, but to also work with other functions to make sure our colleagues have the foundational skills needed to use the tools. We partner closely with our legal team and others to create guidelines and trainings on when and how to use these tools.

We’re also committing resources to ensure our internal AI models are continuously monitored and updated to ensure accuracy while minimizing biases and misinformation. Both of these are major hurdles for organizations looking to integrate AI, but with dedication and proper guardrails, they can be just another step in the full-scale integration process.

**Let’s dig into this further. Can you share the top 5 AI tools or different ways you’re integrating AI into your business? What specific functions do they serve and what kind of results have you seen so far? If you can, please share a story or example for each.**

AI has the potential to impact every business unit in an organization, from operations and finance, to R&D and cybersecurity. Similar to other organizations, we’re rolling out AI tools to employees to help enhance their day-to-day responsibilities. Below are a few examples of how we’ve integrated AI into our business units:

- **Consumer trends and feedback analysis**: We estimate that our products serve approximately 1.2 billion consumers every day.. Therefore understanding how consumers respond to our product can be a significant task for our teams. Teams across our organization, from R&D and quality to sales & marketing and supply chain, are able to leverage internal AI tools to gain insights from consumer feedback across eCommerce sites and consumer posts on social media and blogs. Such insights serve as key inputs into new product development and branding processes leading to enhanced consumer satisfaction. This has led to product reformulations based on insights from consumer reviews.
- **Workshift maximization**: Utilizing AI to manage scheduling is an underrated, yet highly effective, way to leverage the technology. At our manufacturing plants, we’re able to put AI in the hands of decision-makers on the ground to help them develop optimized shift schedules, taking into account internal and external factors such as personnel time off, holidays and seasonal changes. This will free up time for managers to tackle other responsibilities, knowing the schedule can be modified quickly if needed.
- **Shipping capabilities**: Optimizing shipping loads is crucial to maximizing the capacity of the supply chain, especially during busier seasons. By leveraging AI in partnership with key customers, we’re able to help our operations teams fully maximize existing capabilities.
- **Retail optimization:**This process has traditionally been very manual and effort intensive. We are using AI to optimize the assortment and planograms at store-level by looking at the store and category specific shopping behavior of the consumers, which leads not only to higher sales but also lower costs for inventory and store labor.
- **Employee engagement and career development:**As part of our employee’s annual goal setting process, we introduced a new goal setting assistant, fueled by AI, to help employees craft actionable and meaningful goals for the year. This tool was developed in-house and received a lot of positive feedback from our employees.

**There’s concern about AI taking over jobs. How do you balance AI tools with your human workforce and have you already replaced any positions using technology?**

At Kenvue, we view AI as an enabler for the employee and not as a replacement. The speed and scale with which AI can process and streamline information supports faster and more data-driven decision-making and enables our teams to function more effectively. Take demand forecasting as an example. A team may spend several hours trying to fit various forecasting models to match the demand patterns, factoring in things like price, promotions, stockouts, seasonality, etc. Scaling this to thousands of items forecasted every day across thousands of locations requires millions of forecasts to be generated daily. This is not possible manually therefore teams usually end up relying on generalizations which are sub-optimal. AI, specifically deep learning, gives the teams the capability to automatically detect patterns and produce a consistent forecast for all products in a fraction of the time. Streamlining this process creates efficiency within the organization and frees up employee time to focus on the next task.

**Looking ahead, what’s on the horizon in the world of AI that people should know about? What do you see happening in the next 3–5 years? I would love to hear your best prediction.**

Large Language Models will continue to get more powerful. This will lead to Generative AI capabilities getting integrated into the BAU (Business as Usual) operations. Today, Gen AI technologies are disjointed with core business systems. Over the next couple of years, we will see what I would call “embedded GenAI” i.e., GenAI that is integral part of the business system and BAU workflows.

One area where I see a huge potential is automated code generation from business requirements. This would not just be a basic, functional code but a code that is optimized for the deployment infrastructure and performance requirements.

**If you had to pick just one AI tool that you feel is essential, one that you haven’t mentioned yet, which would it be and why?**

Foundational models are evolving at breakneck speed and I’m especially in awe of what it can achieve in modalities like material sciences (GNoME), physics and movement (RT-2) and now image/video (MidJourney/Sora).

**For the uninitiated, what advice would you give someone looking to integrate AI into their business and doesn’t know where to start?**

AI is inevitable. It’s no longer solely for technology companies, but will be essential for all organizations across every industry and sector. Having a scalable strategy that prioritizes tangible use cases in the beginning will be important for companies looking to slowly integrate solutions, allowing them to trial the technology in targeted ways before committing resources to full-scale implementation. Asking ‘how can this help my employees do their job better?’ is a great way to identify early ways the technology can enhance your business. From there, educating and supporting teams on how to properly use AI will create an atmosphere that encourages usage and unlocks future use cases for the technology.

**Where can our readers follow you to learn more about leveraging AI in the business world?**

Readers can follow me on LinkedIn to see all the latest Kenvue technology announcements.

**This was great. Thanks for taking time for us to learn more about you and your business. We wish you continued success!**

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A*bout the Interviewer:*[Chad Silverstein](https://www.chadsilverstein.com/) is a seasoned entrepreneur with 25+ years of experience as a Founder and CEO. While attending Ohio State University, he launched his first company, Choice Recovery, Inc., a nationally recognized healthcare collection agency — twice ranked the #1 workplace in Ohio. In 2013, he founded [re]start, helping thousands of people find meaningful career opportunities. After selling both companies, Chad shifted his focus to his true passion — leadership. Today, he coaches founders and CEOs at [Built to Lead,](https://www.builttolead.community/) advises Authority Magazine’s [Thought Leader Incubator](https://www.authoritymagazine.info/), and launched and leads an online leadership development community which can be downloaded for free for [iOS](https://apps.apple.com/us/app/built-to-lead/id6736526472?platform=iphone) and [Android](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=app.builttolead.community&hl=en_US&pli=1).

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Source: https://authoritymag.co/articles/bernardo-tavares-inside-the-architecture-to-scale-enterprise-ai-and-predictive-data-at-kenvue (Authority Magazine, Tech). Interviewee answers are first-person statements of the guest. Index of all pages: https://authoritymag.co/llms.txt