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Snack maker Mondelez is using a new generative AI tool to cut costs for the production of marketing content by 30 percent to 50 percent, a senior executive told Reuters.

The packaged-food manufacturer began developing the tool last year with ad company Publicis Groupe and IT firm Accenture.

Mondelez expects that the tool will be capable of making short TV ads that would be ready to air as soon as next year’s holiday season, and potentially for the 2027 Super Bowl, said Jon Halvorson, Mondelez’s global senior vice president of consumer experience.

The Cadbury chocolate producer has invested more than US$40 million ($61.4 million) in the tool, Halvorson said, adding that savings would grow if the tool is able to make more elaborate videos.

Faced with tariffs and shrinking shopper budgets, Mondelez, like other consumer goods companies, is looking to adopt AI to slash fees paid to advertising agencies, and speed up how long it takes to develop and sell new products. 

Rivals such as macaroni-and-cheese maker Kraft Heinz and Coca-Cola have also been trying out AI for ads.

Coke in 2024 ran AI-created holiday ads, though the computer-created people in them were ridiculed by some consumers for lacking real emotion.

Mondelez is not yet putting human likenesses in its AI-created content.

It is using content generated by the new tool on social media for its Chips Ahoy cookies in the US and Milka chocolate in Germany.

An eight-second Milka video shows waves of chocolate rippling over a wafer, along with different backgrounds depending on which consumer Mondelez is targeting.

The cost to do animations “is in the hundreds of thousands,” Halvorson said. “This type of setup is orders of magnitude smaller.”

In the US, Oreo will use the tool for product pages on Amazon and Walmart in November.

Mondelez plans to use the tool in the coming months for Lacta chocolate and Oreo in Brazil, and Cadbury in the UK, Halvorson said. 

Tina Vaswani, vice president of digital enablement and data for the company, said humans will always check what the tool produces to avoid any mishaps.

Mondelez has rules prohibiting highlighting unhealthy eating habits, vaping, overconsumption, emotionally manipulative language and the use of offensive stereotypes, according to a document shared by the Chicago-based company.

“What excites talent, what excites the community is to go build around those needs,” Aldorassy told the Fortune Global Forum on Sunday in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

He is the founder and CEO of SILQ, the result of the merger in April between Saudi business-to-business marketplace Sary, which connects small businesses with manufacturers to buy supplies, and Bangladesh’s ShopUp, which offers similar services.

Aldorassy said the vast majority of companies in Saudi Arabia are small and medium-sized enterprises, but they only account for 9% of bank lending. And that is the kind of problem that young Saudi entrepreneurs are tackling—and sparking a culture of innovation there, as evidenced by SILQ. “What differentiates us here is we have a younger generation,” Aldosarry said.

Indeed, some 63% of Saudis and 50% of Bangladeshis are under the age of 30, while only 30% of Americans are.

Lutfey Siddiqi, the special envoy for international affairs in Bangladesh’s interim government, also said at the Fortune Global Forum that his country’s young demographic is key to economic progress, making an oil analogy to explain how Bangladesh should leverage that advantage.

“Our crude oil is our young people, but we need refineries so that we were able to find applications for various grades of skills and education,” said Siddiqi, a former banker at UBS and Barclays. “That’s a resource that we are willing to share with the rest of the world. Because the rest of the world, by and large, is aging.”

He added that companies like Chevron, Met Life and Youngone, a Korean company that makes jackets for The North Face, have all praised Bangladesh’s more business-friendly climate that he attributed to government reforms that made the country more agile and responsive to direct foreign investment.

“That has allow us to convert what is an interest into actual investment,” Siddiqi said.

But as investors increasingly look to emerging markets, another panelist urged them to be mindful of their perception of risk when considering Africa in particular.

“We need to change the discourse when you talk about African continent. When you talk about the African continent, look at businesses on the continent and what they have achieved, and let that be your proxy,” said Mpumi Madisa, CEO of Bidvest Group, a services, trading, and distribution company listed on the Johannesburg stock exchage.

Navitas and SRH University have announced the expansion of their successful partnership with the launch of a third international college in Munich, building on the strong foundations established in Heidelberg (2023) and Berlin (2025).

The new SRH International College in Munich will welcome its first cohort in September 2026, offering two Foundation programs designed to prepare students for progression into a range of SRH degree pathways, including Civil Engineering, Medical Engineering, Mechatronics, Biotechnology, Computer Science, and International Business Administration. Applications open in mid-November 2025.

Expanding access to quality education

Munich’s status as a globally recognised tourism and education hub — and its proximity to leading multinational companies in the automotive, finance, and technology sectors — will offer students not only world-class learning opportunities but also access to valuable industry experience.

“We are delighted to have further strengthened our partnership with SRH, building on the strong foundations we have in place in Heidelberg and Berlin,” said Paul Lovegrove, CEO of Navitas University Partnerships Europe. “We are committed to supporting our students to find the right study destination for them, with three locations that each offer unique benefits. Munich is a city recognised worldwide, and Navitas is thrilled to be able to add it to our portfolio.”

A growing network across Germany

The new Munich college strengthens the Navitas–SRH partnership’s vision to create multiple entry points for international students across Germany. Students will have the flexibility to continue their studies at over twelve SRH University campuses, including Hamburg, Cologne, Hamm, and Stuttgart, offering diverse academic and lifestyle experiences.

Dr Thorsten Bagschik, Managing Director at SRH University, said: “With the opening of the SRH International College at the newly opened and state-of-the-art Campus Berlin, as well as Munich, we are sending another strong signal for our internationalisation strategy. Together with Navitas, we look forward to giving even more students from around the world access to high-quality education and preparing them for successful futures.”

Strengthening global pathways

Germany continues to emerge as a vibrant hub for international education, combining academic excellence with a strong focus on applied learning and innovation. The latest expansion reinforces Navitas and SRH’s shared commitment to supporting student mobility and global opportunity through high-quality, flexible education pathways.