Business · Companies · 6 hrs ago
Suntory Oceania builds AI capabilities with Databricks and Copilot Pro
Suntory Oceania is building its capacity to use AI as a beverage maker, following a major business and technology transformation.
The company began preparing for AI about two years ago while combining its alcohol and non-alcohol businesses and bringing alcohol manufacturing in-house.
It has moved about 90% of roughly 40 datasets to Databricks, creating a shared foundation for future AI tools.
Suntory is also expanding Copilot Pro access for employees, with a few hundred licenses planned this year and more next year.
For its core SAP systems, the company is evaluating built-in agentic AI options before choosing how to proceed.
One possible use is demand sensing, where an AI agent could prepare stock transfer orders for a person to review and approve.
Suntory Oceania is building its AI capabilities with Databricks and Copilot Pro while evaluating agentic options for its SAP core.
The beverage maker has moved about 90 percent of its datasets, roughly 40 in total, to Databricks over the past two years.
The company is scaling Copilot Pro licenses for staff and plans to buy a couple hundred this year and a few hundred more next year.
Digital and IT director Matt Dixon said the company is considering using SAP to automate demand sensing, with an agent raising stock transfer orders for human review and approval.
- Who
- Suntory Oceania, a beverage maker. Its digital and IT director is Matt Dixon.
- What
- The company is building AI capabilities using Databricks and Copilot Pro and evaluating agentic options for its SAP core.
- When
- The effort began about two years before Dixon spoke at the SAP NOW AI Tour. The article was published on October 21, 2026.
- Where
- Sydney, where Dixon spoke at the SAP NOW AI Tour.
- Why
- Suntory Oceania is preparing for AI and developing a centralised data foundation for AI use cases.
This story does not have two clearly opposing sides.
Suntory Oceania began moving datasets from legacy platforms to Databricks as part of its preparation for AI.
The company reached the go-live date for its transformation, which Dixon said was non-negotiable.
About 90 percent of the company's roughly 40 datasets had been moved to Databricks.
Dixon said Suntory Oceania was evaluating agentic options native to its SAP core.
- Databricks datasets
- About 90 percent, roughly 40 datasets
- Copilot Pro licenses
- A couple hundred planned for this year and a few hundred more next year
- Transformation go-live
- July 1, 2025
- Speaker
- Matt Dixon, Suntory Oceania digital and IT director
What people are saying
We had a go-live date of July 1 2025 that was non-negotiable. We couldn't miss that date - and we hit it,
About 90 percent of our datasets are now up in Databricks - something like 40 datasets are up there now.
Really we need to make sure we've looked at what is available in our core first,
We'll keep on scaling that up whilst also making sure the whole business has got access to the standard version of Copilot,