London, May 14, 2026, 12:11 BST
Reckitt Benckiser Group plc will use a Thursday investor seminar to set out how it is applying digital science and generative artificial intelligence across research and development, while making clear it will not disclose new material financial or trading information. The maker of Dettol, Durex, Lysol and Nurofen said the “Reckitt Focus On: Digital Science” event starts at 15:00 BST and will be streamed. Investegate
The timing gives the session its edge. Reckitt’s April trading update showed group like-for-like net revenue up 0.6% in the first quarter, Core Reckitt up 1.3%, Europe down 4.2%, and emerging markets up 7.6%. Like-for-like revenue strips out currency and portfolio changes, giving a cleaner read on underlying sales.
Investors were giving the shares a modest lift ahead of the webcast. Reckitt was up 1.04% at 4,564p at 11:55 BST, according to delayed Barclays data, after closing Wednesday at 4,518p.
The presentation will be led by Chief R&D Officer Angela Naef, with Chief Financial Officer Shannon Eisenhardt, Chief Information and Digitisation Officer Nigel Richardson and Bastien Parizot, senior vice president for global business services and AI enterprise, also taking part. Generative AI means software that can produce or analyse content from large pools of data; Reckitt is pitching it alongside predictive science and its own data as a way to speed product work.
This is not an earnings day. It is a credibility test.
Reckitt has to show that digital tools can do more than cut lab time. Its sales still depend on retail execution, consumer budgets and, in health products, the cold-and-flu season. Chief Executive Kris Licht said in April that Core Reckitt’s first quarter was hit by “very low seasonal incidence, weak categories in Europe and geopolitical disruption,” while excluding seasonal OTC — over-the-counter medicines sold without a prescription — Core Reckitt grew 3.1%. Reckitt
The company is also keeping capital returns in view. Reckitt bought back 208,000 ordinary shares on May 13 at a volume-weighted average price of 4,545.36p and will hold them in treasury, meaning the company owns the shares and they do not count toward voting rights. After the purchase, Reckitt had 638,967,290 voting rights in issue.
Competitive pressure is not standing still. Unilever, a rival in personal care and household products, said last month that AI was helping its Beauty & Wellbeing teams analyse consumer insights 60% faster, cut concept-to-R&D-brief time from months to days and reduce formulation cycles. That is the yardstick Reckitt’s digital science pitch will be judged against, even if the businesses do not overlap cleanly in every aisle.
But the bigger risk may sit outside the lab. Reuters reported in April that consumer goods companies face a pricing stress test from higher oil and energy costs, with P&G flagging a roughly $1 billion fiscal 2027 profit hit. Brian Jacobsen, chief economist at Annex Wealth Management, told Reuters that oil “seeps into everything,” while AJ Bell’s Dan Coatsworth said consumer staples firms may try to pass on extra costs, “but they might struggle.” Reuters
For Reckitt, that leaves a narrow message to land: faster innovation, more repeatable launches, and enough productivity to protect margins if demand softens. The company has already said no new trading information is coming Thursday. Investors will listen anyway.
