Clariant's AI revolution

Clariant’s bold decision to embed innovation at the heart of its culture has delivered clear competitive advantages. While many companies take a cautious route - testing AI in limited pilot programs and delaying broader rollout - Clariant took a braver path. The company implemented a unique, bottom-up approach to AI adoption, empowering employees at all levels to shape and drive the transformation.

This commitment to democratizing innovation has paid off. By reducing hierarchies and fostering a culture of trust and experimentation, Clariant created an environment where ideas could flourish organically. Regular “Coffee with Clarita” sessions demystify the company’s AI assistant, making its benefits accessible and tangible for everyone. Rather than wait for change, Clariant chose to lead it… and continues to do so.

For decades, the wealth of knowledge contained in scientific literature has been both a blessing and a challenge for researchers. While the information exists, finding relevant insights among millions of papers has been like searching for a needle in a haystack. Clarita changes this paradigm entirely.

"Clarita enables our researchers to extract both general and detailed information from vast corpora of scientific literature," notes Lale Kof, Clariant’s Head of IT. "What previously might have taken weeks of manual review can now be accomplished at a fraction of this by are leveraging generative AI to tap into our collective memory and knowledge, be it internal reports, scientific articles, patents, and many other sources of information."

This capability is particularly valuable in R&D, where Clarita filters, digests, and summarizes relevant literature, helping researchers quickly identify key information that can lead to breakthrough innovations. The system also aids in generating testable hypotheses and supports methodologies for innovative problem-solving, creating a more streamlined path from concept to market-ready solution.

Clarita's impact extends well beyond the laboratory. The system has been successfully implemented in production sites to monitor energy consumption and recommend actions to optimize processes, delivering tangible sustainability benefits and cost savings.

At a production plant in Germany, Clarita's analysis led to a significant reduction in steam consumption by identifying inefficiencies in the heating system. Similarly, at a bentonite mining site in Indonesia, the AI tool helped optimize energy usage by analyzing operational data and suggesting improvements to equipment scheduling and maintenance routines.

"What makes Clarita particularly valuable is the ability to continuously learn and adapt," says Lale "As Clarita processes more data, recommendations become increasingly refined, creating a virtuous cycle of improvement across our operations."

The Clarita Sales Assistant, powered by the same underlying technology, has transformed how Clariant's sales teams engage with customers. By providing comprehensive customer insights, technical guidance, and business development support, the tool enables sales professionals to have more informed, value-added conversations with clients.

"Our sales teams can now enter customer meetings armed with detailed knowledge about not just our products, but also the customer's specific challenges and how our solutions can address them," states Lale. "This level of effortless and consistent preparation is a dream come true for our global sales force”.

The Sales Assistant can quickly retrieve technical specifications, application examples, and competitive positioning information, allowing sales representatives to respond to customer inquiries with accuracy and confidence. This capability has proven particularly valuable in complex technical discussions where precise information can make the difference between winning or losing a contract.

For a company dealing with proprietary formulations and sensitive R&D projects, data security was paramount in Clarita's design. The system operates entirely within Clariant's IT network, ensuring that confidential information remains protected.

Clarita also incorporates anti-plagiarism safeguards and provides citations for all information sources, maintaining the integrity of scientific work.

As Clarita continues to evolve, its applications within Clariant are expanding. Future development plans include adding chemical expertise to Clarita. Potential applications range from enhanced visualization capabilities for complex chemical structures, predictive modeling for formulation development to deeper integration with laboratory infrastructure for real-time data analysis.

By embracing this technology, Clariant is not just improving efficiency - it's fundamentally transforming how chemistry innovation happens. From accelerating scientific discovery to optimizing production processes and enhancing customer relationships, Clarita represents a holistic approach to AI implementation that touches every aspect of the value chain.

And while the tools are powerful, Clariant remains clear-eyed about their role: AI is an accelerator, not a replacement. It enhances human expertise, unlocks buried knowledge, and enables faster, smarter decisions. “We're not here to ‘adopt AI’ – we’re here to unlock the potential of our people” Lale explains. In doing so, Clariant is delivering on its purpose of ‘greater chemistry - between people and planet