Nestlé CEO: Workers Need More Than Prompting Skills for Effective AI Use
October 8, 2026 - 12:13 pm
Philipp Navratil, chief executive of Nestlé. Photo credit: Nestlé / CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 via Flickr
According to Business Insider, Philipp Navratil, CEO of Nestlé, emphasizes that knowing how to craft a good prompt is not sufficient for employees aiming to excel in the age of artificial intelligence (AI).
Navratil, who oversees a workforce of over 270,000, states that he doesn't expect his employees to become AI experts. Instead, he encourages them to:
- Understand how AI can be applied within their specific business areas.
- Anticipate future directions of AI and its implications for Nestlé.
- Reassess existing work processes and rethink workflows by eliminating unnecessary steps.
He argues that introducing AI on top of existing habits could make work more cumbersome, not less. The focus should be on redesigning work around AI, as suggested by Miro CEO Andrey Khusid, rather than simply integrating it into existing teams.
Navratil's perspective comes at a time when Nestlé is heavily investing in AI tools; approximately 100,000 employees use Microsoft Copilot each month, according to Fortune. The company has also announced plans to cut around 16,000 jobs over two years, emphasizing the need for process automation.
A recent survey by TU Darmstadt in Germany revealed that only 15% of respondents had received any AI training, highlighting a potential gap in preparedness for an increasingly AI-driven workplace.