Data and AI Differentiator: Human Centred Data and Data Literacy

A leading FMCG organisation with >200,000 employees faced a familiar challenge: platform and AI investment had outpaced capability on the ground. Middle managers and teams were stuck in rework and reconciliation instead of making decisions with confidence.

Context

The drag was both commercial and customer-facing:

  • Working capital tied up by inaccuracies and inefficiencies
  • Compliance exposure creating operational risk
  • Productivity losses across thousands of roles
  • Customer experience impacts through unavailable products, inconsistent information, and errors at the shelf

The value at stake was clear: millions in avoidable cost, wasted effort, and eroded trust with customers.

The Brief

Crack the code on data literacy at scale - positioning people as the differentiators who enable data, and through data, AI.

What we did.

Initial audits were necessary to gauge current systems:

  • Foundational Scan: Mapped what existed - systems, roles, standards, and duplication - exposing friction and ownership gaps.
  • Baselining: Measured literacy maturity across teams to identify confidence gaps, decision-making pain points, and areas of highest commercial and customer impact.
  • Strategy and Capability Design: Co-designed with a consortium the strategy and standards and Data Literacy activations that are integrated into the flow of work
  • Activated: Developed a method to activate teams in their context, in an accelerated manner
  • Perfomance Analytics: Defined the metrics that matter, the baseline and target. Defined business value outcomes and mechanisms on how to measure the return.

Activation Studios

Co-designed the strategy, standards, and activation roadmap with leaders and teams

Operational Activations

Designed and delivered literacy activations directly into operational routines, contextualised to team roles and responsibilities - embedding capability in the flow of work

Collaboration

Activated literacy horizontally across BUs, cutting silos, reducing duplication, and strengthening shared ownership

The results.

  • Data literacy reframed as a business capability, not training
  • Middle managers and teams. Differentiators. Enabled to lead with data, not chase it
  • Data accuracy lifted. Reducing working capital drag, compliance risk, customer-facing errors
  • Hours of productivity returned each week to managers and teams
  • Collaboration across BUs improved → fewer errors, smoother execution, better customer outcomes
  • AI outcomes improved. Models became more accurate, recommendations more relevant, and outputs more trusted☑ AI actions accelerated. Decisions such as pricing, replenishment, and risk monitoring taken faster, with greater confidence
  • Early traction created executive confidence to proceed to the next phase

What it meant for the organisation

XOAM acted as the strategic shadow - cutting through complexity, framing the story, and shaping the path forward. This created the space for leaders and teams to act as differentiators, build confidence, and accelerate adoption.

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Why it worked

Simple.

AI, analytics, and automation are enabled by data - and data is enabled by people.
AI insights, advanced analytics, and automation only create value when they are surfaced, communicated, and consumed by people who trust and act on them.
But it’s not just AI. It’s the 30,000 daily decisions made across the organisation - by managers, teams, and frontline staff - that shape cost, risk, and customer experience.

People are the differentiator.

Data Literacy Activations were the disruptor - embedding confidence and capability into the flow of work, so every decision, from AI-assisted analytics to frontline choices, became faster, smarter, and more trusted.