Painting a smarter enterprise: 25,000+ employees adopt agentic AI at AkzoNobel

Problem: Fragmented knowledge slowed productivity

In 2023, AkzoNobel launched a company-wide IT transformation to modernize how employees access information and get work done. The CIO’s mandate was clear: introduce AI in a way that meaningfully improves productivity while strengthening operational efficiency. Enterprise search was a priority, alongside providing secure, governed access to ChatGPT.

This initiative was driven by scale and complexity. With nearly 35,000 employees operating across 150 countries, information lived in disconnected systems and multiple languages. Employees often struggled to locate accurate, up-to-date answers, slowing workflows and increasing reliance on manual support channels. The organization needed a smarter, centralized approach that could deliver consistent, multilingual access to knowledge without adding operational overhead.

To achieve that vision, AkzoNobel aimed to establish a single surface inside Microsoft Teams where employees could search, automate tasks, and interact with AI securely. At the same time, the company required strict compliance and governance controls — so sensitive enterprise data remained protected and was not used to train external models. The goal was not experimentation. It was scalable, enterprise-grade AI.

Solution: Xara, a Moveworks Agentic AI Assistant, delivers the answer

In AkzoNobel evaluated four other vendors before selecting Moveworks for its agentic AI capabilities, integrations, scalability, and enterprise-grade security. A conversation with Broadcom, an existing Moveworks customer, validated the decision. Broadcom achieved results with just half an FTE where competitors required 25–40. That efficiency and scalability sealed the deal.

AkzoNobel’s security, compliance, and European works councils quickly cleared Moveworks — a milestone given the company’s strict regulatory standards. Deployment was fast: “We gave Moveworks access on a Thursday evening and by Tuesday morning, we were testing ServiceNow,” recalls Malabika Mukherjee, Domain Lead, AI & Automation. “The native skills, security compliance, and solid encryption process of the Moveworks AI Assistant are incredible.”

In December 2023, AkzoNobel launched Xara, its AI Assistant, powered by an agentic Reasoning Engine that leverages the most advanced and latest large language models (LLMs) to understand complex requests, plan intelligently, and take action. Employees don't need to know where systems data or workflows reside  —  Moveworks figures it out for them, as agents within the platform orchestrate end-to-end workflows to boost productivity.

Top use cases include:

Result: Global support at scale

What began as an IT initiative now spans multiple departments, with 72% adoption and rising. With over 9,000 employees using Moveworks on day one, AkzoNobel’s transformation was off to a fast start:

Looking forward

AkzoNobel uses Moveworks to gain full visibility into employee support metrics, enabling teams to track key experience indicators, monitor trends, and optimize performance across departments and geographies. It is expanding its use of the Moveworks Agent Studio to automate tasks like printer setup, Outlook reloads, Windows passwords and many, many more.

With leadership buy-in, creative engagement tactics, and a strong adoption strategy, AkzoNobel expects to reach 80% adoption by the end of FY 2025. The company continues to paint a better, brighter, and sustainable future through the Moveworks agentic AI platform —  empowering every employee to work smarter, faster, and more sustainably.