---
id: "entity-pernod-ricard-d9"
type: "entity"
entityType: "organization"
canonicalName: "Pernod Ricard"
aliases: []
source_timestamps: ["¶ 2", "§ Employees Are Initially Skeptical"]
tags: ["company", "spirits-industry"]
related: ["entity-d-star", "entity-matrix", "entity-alexander-ricard", "entity-org-harvard-business-school"]
sources: ["adoption"]
sourceVaultSlug: "hbr-seg-adoption"
originDay: 9
articleStem: "hbr-edu-41-french-spirits-employee-buy-in"
sourceUrl: "https://hbr.org/2025/12/how-a-french-spirits-company-created-employee-buy-in-for-ai"
sourceTitle: "How a French Spirits Company Created Employee Buy-In for AI"
---
# Pernod Ricard

A 200-year-old French spirits company and the world's second-largest in its sector. Operating in over 70 countries with 90 production facilities, it historically relied on local market expertise, intuition, and traditional relationship-driven sales before successfully executing a major AI-driven digital transformation. Its flagship AI tools in this source are [[entity-d-star]] (sales) and [[entity-matrix]] (marketing).

**Enrichment context.** Pernod Ricard is a major French wine and spirits group now recognized as a leader in data and AI capabilities — reportedly ranking first in the beverages category for data/AI activities. Its broader AI stack (beyond the two tools central to this source) includes **Maestria / Maestria 2.0** (a brand-matching platform transformed from workshop-driven to predictive AI-driven), **Genie** (a generative-AI tool piloted for campaign content), and a portfolio of **KDPs (Key Digital Programs)**, with D-STAR and Matrix as the case's primary focus. D-STAR also appears in Pernod Ricard's *Conviviality Platform* materials for ensuring 'availability and visibility of the right product at the right place at the right time.'

The transformation was mandated top-down by CEO [[entity-alexander-ricard]] and executed with a strong bottom-up adoption strategy ([[framework-pernod-ricard-buy-in]]). Executive Pierre-Yves Calloc'h has publicly emphasized that scaling AI is 'more a question of adoption, team engagement and change' than pure technology. The case study analyzing this transformation — *Pernod Ricard: Uncorking Digital Transformation* — was produced by [[entity-org-harvard-business-school-d9]].