PepsiCo unveils industry-first AI and digital twin collaboration with Siemens and NVIDIA at CES 2026

By:  Nana Appiah Acquaye

PepsiCo has announced a multi-year, industry-first collaboration with Siemens and NVIDIA aimed at transforming its manufacturing plants and supply chain operations through advanced artificial intelligence and digital twin technology.

Unveiled at CES 2026, the partnership positions PepsiCo as the first global consumer packaged goods company to apply large-scale, physics-based digital twins to redesign how production plants and warehousing facilities are simulated, tested and optimized. Early pilot projects are already underway across select facilities in the United States, with plans to expand the initiative globally.

The collaboration comes as PepsiCo responds to rising demand for production and distribution capacity by adopting a digital-first planning strategy. Instead of relying on traditional expansion methods, which are often costly and time-consuming, the company is leveraging AI-driven simulation tools to virtually design, validate and optimize facilities before physical changes are made.

PepsiCo is deploying Siemens’ Digital Twin Composer, built on NVIDIA Omniverse libraries, to create high-fidelity digital replicas of its manufacturing and warehouse environments. These digital twins allow the company to simulate upgrades, test alternative layouts and identify performance improvements using AI agents as co-designers in the planning process.

According to PepsiCo Chairman and CEO Ramon Laguarta, the collaboration reflects the scale and complexity of the company’s end-to-end operations and its commitment to embedding AI across the business. He said the initiative would support PepsiCo’s ambition to operate with greater agility, foresight and responsiveness to consumer and customer needs.

NVIDIA founder and CEO Jensen Huang described digital twins as the foundation of AI adoption in physical industries, noting that PepsiCo is using physically accurate simulations and AI to rethink how it designs and operates its global footprint. Siemens CEO Roland Busch said the partnership demonstrates how industrial AI and digital twin technologies can drive faster, higher-quality and more efficient decision-making across manufacturing and logistics.

Through the use of Digital Twin Composer, NVIDIA Omniverse and computer vision technologies, PepsiCo is now able to recreate every aspect of its facilities, including machinery, conveyor systems, pallet flows and operator movements, with physics-level accuracy. This approach enables AI agents to identify potential bottlenecks and risks before physical implementation, allowing teams to address up to 90 percent of potential issues virtually.

Initial deployments have already delivered measurable results. PepsiCo reports throughput improvements of up to 20 percent, near-total design validation prior to construction, faster design cycles and capital expenditure reductions of between 10 and 15 percent by uncovering hidden capacity and validating investments in a digital environment.

Athina Kanioura, PepsiCo’s Global Chief Strategy and Transformation Officer and CEO for Latin America, said the initiative represents the creation of a digital blueprint that reimagines how supply chains are designed, built and scaled. She noted that the long-term goal is to create an intelligent, unified ecosystem in which facilities anticipate demand and adapt in real time.

The announcement, made during the opening keynote at CES 2026, underscores PepsiCo’s broader digital transformation agenda and highlights the growing role of industrial AI, digital twins and immersive simulation in reshaping global manufacturing and supply chain operations.