Brands
Deloitte and Clevertap partner to transform customer engagement with AI
MUMBAI: Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu India LLP has announced a strategic alliance with Clevertap to revolutionise customer engagement using AI-powered analytics and data-driven insights. This collaboration aims to help businesses optimise interactions, boost retention, and drive digital transformation across key sectors, including retail, financial services, quick commerce, and travel.
As companies increasingly shift to insight-led engagement models, the partnership will focus on delivering real-time analytics, predictive insights, and highly personalised experiences. By combining Deloitte’s strategic expertise with Clevertap’s AI-driven platform, businesses can create seamless and scalable customer journeys.
Deloitte India partner Hemendra Upadhyay said, “This partnership is about equipping businesses with the right tools to stay ahead in an evolving digital landscape. Through collaboration, we will help enterprises leverage data and technology to enhance customer connections and drive growth.”
Clevertap co-founder & chief product officer Anand Jain, “Deloitte’s deep market insights, combined with Clevertap’s AI-driven solutions, will enable businesses to build personalised, scalable engagement strategies that redefine customer relationships.”
The alliance will begin with pilot projects, joint training, and co-marketing initiatives, eventually expanding to industry-specific solutions and innovation labs. Over time, the partnership aims to establish new standards for digital transformation, ensuring businesses stay ahead in a rapidly evolving marketplace.
Brands
Estée Lauder to shed 10,000 jobs as new boss bets on digital shift
The cosmetics giant raises its profit outlook but stays silent on a possible merger with Spain’s Puig, as job cuts deepen and a three-year sales slump weighs on the turnaround
NEW YORK: Stéphane de La Faverie is not done cutting. Estée Lauder announced on Friday that it plans to eliminate as many as 3,000 additional jobs, taking its total redundancy programme to as many as 10,000 roles, up from a previous target of 7,000 announced a year ago. The company, which owns La Mer, The Ordinary, Tom Ford, and Aveda, employs roughly 57,000 people worldwide. The mathematics of what is now being contemplated is stark.
The fresh round of cuts is expected to generate a further $200 million in savings, bringing the total annual savings from the programme to as much as $1.2 billion before taxes. That money, De La Faverie has made clear, will be ploughed back into the turnaround.
A CEO in a hurry
De La Faverie, who took the helm in January 2025, inherited a company that had endured three consecutive years of annual sales declines. His response has been to move fast and cut deep. A significant portion of the latest redundancies reflects his push to reduce headcount at US department stores, long a cornerstone of Estée Lauder’s distribution model but now a channel in structural decline. In their place, he is accelerating the shift toward faster-growing online platforms, including Amazon.com and TikTok Shop, a pivot that is reshaping not just where Estée Lauder sells but how it thinks about its customers.
The numbers are moving in the right direction
Despite the pain, there are signs the medicine is working. Estée Lauder raised its profit outlook for the remainder of the fiscal year, guiding for adjusted earnings per share in the range of $2.35 to $2.45, above analyst estimates and a notable step up from the $2.05 to $2.25 range it had guided for in February. Organic net sales growth is expected to come in at 3 per cent, the company said, at the high end of the range it set out in February.
The share price tells a mixed story. After De La Faverie took charge, the stock surged nearly 60 per cent, buoyed by investor optimism that a longtime company insider could finally arrest the decline. But 2026 has been rougher: the shares have fallen 27 per cent this year, weighed down by disappointing February results and the overhang of unresolved merger talks with Spanish beauty giant Puig Brands SA. The company gave no additional details about those discussions on Friday, leaving the market to guess.
Silence on Puig
The proposed tie-up with Puig remains the most consequential unknown hanging over Estée Lauder. A deal with the Barcelona-based group, which owns brands including Carolina Herrera and Rabanne, would reshape the global luxury beauty landscape. But with nothing new to say and a turnaround still very much in progress, De La Faverie is asking investors to trust the process.
Three years of sales declines, 10,000 job cuts, and a merger that may or may not happen. At Estée Lauder, the overhaul has barely started.
