{"id":931290,"date":"2026-09-02T06:14:58","date_gmt":"2026-09-02T11:14:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2026\/09\/02\/interview-haleons-tech-chief-delighted-for-ai-agents-to-feed-sap-clean-core\/"},"modified":"2026-09-02T06:14:58","modified_gmt":"2026-09-02T11:14:58","slug":"interview-haleons-tech-chief-delighted-for-ai-agents-to-feed-sap-clean-core","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2026\/09\/02\/interview-haleons-tech-chief-delighted-for-ai-agents-to-feed-sap-clean-core\/","title":{"rendered":"Interview: Haleon\u2019s tech chief delighted for AI agents to feed SAP \u2018clean core\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"content-header\">\n<h2>Haleon, formed from the consumer health units of GSK, Pfizer and Novartis, makes familiar brands like Sensodyne and Advil. Its chief digital and technology officer, Claire Dickson, tells its IT transformation story<\/h2>\n<\/div>\n<div id=\"content-center\">\n<ul>\n<li><i data-icon=\"1\"><\/i><\/li>\n<li><i data-icon=\"2\"><\/i><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<div id=\"contributors-block\">\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.ttgtmedia.com\/rms\/computerweekly\/Brian-McKenna-profile-pic-2022-140x180px.jpg\" alt=\"Brian McKenna\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p><span>By<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\n\t\t\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.techtarget.com\/contributor\/Brian-McKenna\">Brian McKenna,<\/a><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<span>Enterprise Applications Editor<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>\n\tPublished: <span>01 Sep 2026 12:45<\/span>\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<section id=\"content-body\">\n<p>Consumer healthcare company <a href=\"https:\/\/www.techtarget.com\/pharmalifesciences\/news\/366606165\/GSK-Introduces-Standalone-Consumer-Healthcare-Company-Haleon\">Haleon<\/a> is both old and new. While many readers might be unfamiliar with the company\u2019s name, they will be familiar with its products. To list them is to recognise the contents of most of our bathroom cabinets: Sensodyne toothpaste, Advil painkillers, Centrum vitamin supplements, Tums and Nicorette, to name but a few.<\/p>\n<p>The company was founded in July 2022 through the merger of consumer healthcare portfolios from GSK, Pfizer and Novartis. Its core enterprise resource planning (ERP) system is a clone of GSK\u2019s SAP ECC6 installation, says chief digital and technology officer <a href=\"https:\/\/www.computerweekly.com\/news\/366648897\/Most-Influential-Women-in-UK-Tech-The-2026-longlist\">Claire Dickson<\/a>, and the technology strategy plan is to partner with SAP, but also with Microsoft, quite deeply.<\/p>\n<p>Dickson joined Haleon at the time of the new combined company\u2019s inception. She has been guiding a prospective new ERP for the company, S\/4Hana on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.techtarget.com\/enterprise-software\/feature\/Rise-with-SAP-evolves-but-struggles-to-make-a-case-for-some\">SAP\u2019s Rise cloud migration programme<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Dickson previously held CIO roles at <a href=\"https:\/\/www.computerweekly.com\/news\/252503541\/CIO-interview-Claire-Dickson-group-CIO-DS-Smith\">multinational packaging business DS Smith<\/a> and BP. She was also a senior manager at Accenture and an SAP analyst at United Biscuits.\u00a0But she says the role at Haleon is of a different order, since it is a whole new company composed of elements drawn from well-established entities. And on the technology side, there is opportunity to put in place a substantially new stack, and one more oriented towards being a consumer company.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe proposition with Haleon is quite exciting because even though there\u2019s maturity in the company, it\u2019s also brand new,\u201d she told Computer Weekly at this year\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.computerweekly.com\/news\/366643794\/Sapphire-2026-SAP-executives-admit-route-change-on-high-road-to-business-AI\">SAP Sapphire conference in Madrid<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The company\u2019s avowed purpose is to \u201cdeliver better everyday health with humanity\u201d, focusing on what it describes in its literature as \u201caccessible, science-backed solutions for everyday health needs\u201d. It has annual sales of approximately \u00a311bn (2025) and 24,000 employees. Haleon operates in over 100 markets worldwide. Its stated goal is to reach one billion more consumers by 2030, and it is targeting 4-6% revenue growth annually until then.<\/p>\n<p>Haleon\u2019s SAP board-level contact for its transformation programme is chief executive <a href=\"https:\/\/www.techtarget.com\/contributor\/Christian-Klein\">Christian Klein<\/a>. He and Haleon\u2019s CEO, Brian McNamara, are closely connected on the partnership. \u201cI would expect that we\u2019ll do some co-innovation together as we get going,\u201d said Dickson.<\/p>\n<section data-menu-title=\"\u2018Clean\u2019 ecosystem of partners\">\n<h2><i data-icon=\"1\"><\/i>\u2018Clean\u2019 ecosystem of partners<\/h2>\n<p>SAP used its 2026 Sapphire conferences, for users and partners, in Orlando and Madrid to stake out its vision of an <a href=\"https:\/\/www.techtarget.com\/enterprise-software\/news\/366642887\/The-AI-technology-behind-SAPs-Autonomous-Enterprise-pitch\">autonomous enterprise, mostly based on agentic artificial intelligence (AI)<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen we entered into the partnership with SAP, we made some assumptions that there would be more agentic capability coming, and therefore the partnership was premised on being [SAP] \u2018<a href=\"https:\/\/www.techtarget.com\/searchsap\/news\/366631222\/There-are-50-shades-of-clean-core-for-SAP-customers\">clean core<\/a>\u2019 and we trust that the agents are coming,\u201d Dickson told Computer Weekly.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSo, we were delighted with the announcement here, because clearly a lot of that comes out of the box as standard,\u201d she added. \u201cOur AI strategy is to leverage as standard out-of-the-box from our suppliers where possible. We don\u2019t want to be systemically building huge numbers of agents ourselves. We are building some, but we don\u2019t want to do that as a strategy.\u201d<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.ttgtmedia.com\/rms\/computerweekly\/Claire-Dickson-Haleon-PR-140x180px.jpg\" alt=\"Photo of Claire Dickson, chief data and technology officer at Haleon\">\n  <\/p>\n<p><span><strong><span>\u201cThe opportunity here is to design a fit-for-purpose clean core that will enable us to be a much faster-to-market consumer goods company\u201d<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><em><span>Claire Dickson, Haleon<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Haleon\u2019s ambitions are big, said Dickson. \u201cThe partnership with SAP enables quite a lot of that because the SAP platform that we are on today is basically a clone from GSK. We are in a pharma template now, and we want to be a consumer goods company.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe opportunity here is to design a fit-for-purpose clean core that will enable us to be a much faster-to-market consumer goods company,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n<p>As part of that, the company has used <a href=\"https:\/\/www.techtarget.com\/enterprise-software\/news\/252495495\/SAP-acquires-process-mining-software-vendor-Signavio\">SAP Signavio<\/a>, and is planning to use it more. \u201cWe\u2019re excited about using Signavio as part of our design process because you can do all your process mining and assessment within SAP. You can lock and load it into the existing ECC platform and see what your process fitness looks like, and based on that process fitness, we can decide where we think the value sits, either through automation or just ripping out some of what we do today,\u201d said Dickson.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt wouldn\u2019t make any sense to look elsewhere for process mining because it\u2019s just part of the SAP family. Strategically, we are trying to create an ecosystem of partners that\u2019s quite clean. Less is more, I think, and reduces the attack surface,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n<p>When Haleon separated from GSK, it took the opportunity to migrate everything to the cloud. \u201cWe put 98% of our kit into [Microsoft] Azure in two years to make us digital ready, which is excellent. And we built on that and signed a partnership with Salesforce to create a pharmacy platform on their Life Sciences cloud,\u201d said Dickson.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019re co-innovating [with Salesforce] to build a platform for our salesforce. We have 4,500 salespeople that go out to work with our customers, who are pharmacists, and their healthcare professionals, and also with dentists. So that\u2019s quite a big part of our business, less mass market.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<section data-menu-title=\"Collaborating on digital, data and AI\">\n<h2><i data-icon=\"1\"><\/i>Collaborating on digital, data and AI<\/h2>\n<p>Another supplier that is strategic to Haleon\u2019s transformation is Microsoft.<\/p>\n<p>In June 2026, the consumer health company announced a five-year \u201ccollaboration with Microsoft to scale digital, data and AI capabilities across the business\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>The agreement is said to build on Haleon\u2019s existing use of Microsoft 365 Copilot and further supports the wider adoption of AI-powered tools.<\/p>\n<p>In the announcement of that partnership, Dickson said: \u201cThis collaboration marks a major step forward in how we use digital, data and AI to deliver our global strategy \u2013 driving growth, improving productivity and building a more agile, performance-focused culture.<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<div>\n<figure>\n    By combining Microsoft\u2019s cloud and AI capabilities with Haleon\u2019s deep consumer health expertise, we\u2019re accelerating our AI progress \u2013 simplifying how we work, unlocking more value from our data, accelerating innovation and helping our teams make faster, smarter decisions to benefit our consumers<br \/>\n   <\/figure><figcaption>\n    <strong>Claire Dickson, Haleon<\/strong><br \/>\n   <\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019re already embedding AI capabilities across the business, delivering measurable results and efficiencies in areas including consumer insights, marketing, R&#038;D and supply chain.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBy combining Microsoft\u2019s cloud and AI capabilities with Haleon\u2019s deep consumer health expertise, we\u2019re accelerating our AI progress \u2013 simplifying how we work, unlocking more value from our data, accelerating innovation and helping our teams make faster, smarter decisions to benefit our consumers.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Alongside these supplier relationships, the company is purposely educating its senior management teams in AI.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cEducation is everything,\u201d said Dickson. \u201cAs part of our data and AI journey, we are putting all of our top leaders through a Cambridge University data and AI course that we have crafted together.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOur top 160 leaders will have been through that by the end of September of this year. I think the Cambridge course has been so successful because it\u2019s a two-day course in Cambridge, with leaders flown in from all over the world.\u00a0We have also deployed a data camp for all employees with differentiated modules for them.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe have to take accountability for educating our people because otherwise only a minority will use AI properly. Even with Copilot, people don\u2019t tend to use it to its full capability.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBut if you educate people, they realise that, say, at the end of the week you can ask it who owes you an action and what you owe someone else, and get a summary of your last three meetings. But people don\u2019t really know the power of it. They ask it questions more like Google, but that is not the power of Copilot.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<\/section>\n<section id=\"DigDeeperSplash\">\n<h4>\n\t\t\t<i data-icon=\"m\"><\/i>Read more on Enterprise resource planning (ERP) software<\/h4>\n<ul>\n<li><a id=\"DigDeeperItem-1\" href=\"https:\/\/www.computerweekly.com\/news\/366643794\/Sapphire-2026-SAP-executives-admit-route-change-on-high-road-to-business-AI\"><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.computerweekly.com\/rms\/computerweekly\/SAP-sapphire-2026-christian-klein-hero_searchsitetablet_520X173.jpg\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.computerweekly.com\/rms\/computerweekly\/SAP-sapphire-2026-christian-klein-hero_searchsitetablet_520X173.jpg 960w,https:\/\/www.computerweekly.com\/rms\/computerweekly\/SAP-sapphire-2026-christian-klein-hero.jpg 1280w\" alt ><\/p>\n<h5>Sapphire 2026: SAP executives admit route change on high road to business AI<\/h5>\n<div>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.computerweekly.com\/rms\/computerweekly\/Brian-McKenna-profile-pic-2022-140x180px.jpg\" alt=\"BrianMcKenna\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p><span>By: <span>Brian\u00a0McKenna<\/span><\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>\t\t\t\t<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a id=\"DigDeeperItem-2\" href=\"https:\/\/www.techtarget.com\/cybersecurity\/feature\/Security-platformization-vs-best-of-breed-Risks-and-benefits\"><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.computerweekly.com\/rms\/onlineimages\/check_g496816315_searchsitetablet_520X173.jpg\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.computerweekly.com\/rms\/onlineimages\/check_g496816315_searchsitetablet_520X173.jpg 960w,https:\/\/www.computerweekly.com\/rms\/onlineimages\/check_g496816315.jpg 1280w\" alt ><\/p>\n<h5>Security platformization vs. best-of-breed: Risks and benefits<\/h5>\n<div>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.computerweekly.com\/rms\/onlineimages\/vijayan_jaikumar.jpg\" alt=\"JaikumarVijayan\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p><span>By: <span>Jaikumar\u00a0Vijayan<\/span><\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>\t\t\t\t<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a id=\"DigDeeperItem-3\" href=\"https:\/\/www.computerweekly.com\/blog\/CW-Developer-Network\/Sysdig-has-a-head-for-headless-agent-aligned-cloud-security\"><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.computerweekly.com\/visuals\/digdeeper\/3.jpg\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.computerweekly.com\/visuals\/digdeeper\/3_searchsitetablet_520X173.jpg 960w,https:\/\/www.computerweekly.com\/visuals\/digdeeper\/3.jpg 1280w\" alt ><\/p>\n<h5>Sysdig has a head for headless agent-aligned cloud security<\/h5>\n<div>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.computerweekly.com\/rms\/computerweekly\/Adrian-Bridgwater-60px.jpg\" alt=\"AdrianBridgwater\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p><span>By: <span>Adrian\u00a0Bridgwater<\/span><\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>\t\t\t\t<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a id=\"DigDeeperItem-4\" href=\"https:\/\/www.techtarget.com\/enterprise-software\/news\/366634356\/The-CX-universe-takes-on-healthcare-with-agentic-AI\"><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.computerweekly.com\/rms\/onlineimages\/health_g1164501548_searchsitetablet_520X173.jpg\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.computerweekly.com\/rms\/onlineimages\/health_g1164501548_searchsitetablet_520X173.jpg 960w,https:\/\/www.computerweekly.com\/rms\/onlineimages\/health_g1164501548.jpg 1280w\" alt ><\/p>\n<h5>The CX universe takes on healthcare with agentic AI<\/h5>\n<div>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.computerweekly.com\/rms\/onlineimages\/don_fluckinger.jpg\" alt=\"DonFluckinger\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p><span>By: <span>Don\u00a0Fluckinger<\/span><\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>\t\t\t\t<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/section>\n<\/div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.computerweekly.com\/news\/366649474\/Interview-Haleons-tech-chief-delighted-for-AI-agents-to-feed-SAP-clean-core\" class=\"button purchase\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Read More<\/a><br \/>\n Rubi Paris<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Haleon, formed from the consumer health units of GSK, Pfizer and Novartis, makes familiar brands like Sensodyne and Advil. Its chief digital and technology officer, Claire Dickson, tells its IT transformation story By Brian McKenna, Enterprise Applications Editor Published: 01 Sep 2026 12:45 Consumer healthcare company Haleon is both old and new. While many readers<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":931291,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[152125,22316,46],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-931290","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-haleons","category-interview","category-technology"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/931290","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=931290"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/931290\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/931291"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=931290"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=931290"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=931290"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}