CIO Dive Trendline on Digital transformation
Magnum Ice Cream (which owns brands such as Ben & Jerry's and Magnum) is preparing for a two-year comprehensive IT system overhaul following its spin-off from Unilever in 2025. Michael Friedlander, the company's CIO for the Americas, calls this a 'once-in-a-lifetime opportunity,' emphasizing a foundation of clean data, selecting partners deeply invested in AI, and adopting configuration over customization to accelerate AI adoption.
Ice cream giant builds AI-ready tech stack from scratch
The Magnum Ice Cream Company, behind brands such as Ben & Jerry’s and Popsicle, is preparing for an IT transformation following its spinoff from Unilever.
The Magnum Ice Cream Company is preparing for a digital renaissance following its spinoff from Unilever, an undertaking that Michael Friedlander, CIO of the Americas, described as a once in a lifetime opportunity.
Home to some of the largest ice cream brands globally, including Ben & Jerry’s, Breyers, Magnum and Klondike, the company completed its exit from Unilever in 2025, becoming a standalone company.
Over the next two years, Friedlander said The Magnum Ice Cream Company will deploy new IT systems under a phased approach — including new ERP and CRM systems, website management and supply chain capabilities. In the meantime, the company is operating under transition services agreements with Unilever, relying on the former parent company for IT functionality and support.
Looking to The Magnum Ice Cream Company’s technological future, Friedlander said he’s excited for the possibilities of building a new tech stack — unencumbered by legacy systems — and positioning the company to take advantage of the latest AI developments.
“We’re taking this opportunity to standardize the processes where we can and invest in platforms that are also investing in AI capabilities,” Friedlander told CIO Dive.
Data, partnerships and people
As The Magnum Ice Cream Company prepares to implement new technologies, Friedlander said he is focusing on the critical underpinning of its future tech stack — data.
“None of this works without clean data,” Friedlander said.
The Magnum Ice Cream Company’s digital transformation isn’t Friedlander’s first modernization rodeo.
Before joining The Magnum Ice Cream Company in August 2025, Friedlander spent nearly four years at PepsiCo as senior director of strategy and transformation. Before that, he was the head of U.S. IT at Toll Group, leading the logistics and transportation company’s efforts to deploy Oracle financial systems and evaluate digital technologies that could transform business processes.
As Friedlander brings his experience to bear at The Magnum Ice Cream Company, he views clean, accurate and available data as critical to deploy future AI capabilities. The right partnerships with large technology providers are also key.
CIOs are fielding a flurry of vendor pitches offering the latest and greatest AI tools and platforms on the market. Competition for enterprise customers is heating up for hyperscalers, ERP providers such as Oracle and Salesforce, and even large language model providers OpenAI and Anthropic, which are looking to earn a greater slice of enterprise spend.
When assessing companies to partner with, Friedlander said he’s largely focused on how they’re building AI into their services and platforms. He’s also steering clear of highly customized systems, which he said can limit scale and slow upgrade capabilities.
“We’re very much partnering with the companies that are investing heavily in AI capabilities and are sound and proven, with some outliers here and there,” Friedlander said. “We’re trying to make sure we’re integrating big platforms together. That’s really going to help us unlock AI faster, primarily because we’re going to do more configuration than customization, which I think is the huge unlock for the business.”
AI will touch every function across The Magnum Ice Cream Company’s operations, including finance, HR, supply chain and marketing, Friedlander said. In supply chain, for example, Friedlander said he’s considering how to use AI-powered camera recognition to prevent safety incidents in factories. Meanwhile, in HR, he’s focused on bettering the employee experience and building an HR assistant into workflows.
To help steer future adoption, the company will be focused on training employees in proper AI use and looking out for AI-related threats.
“It’s all about change management,” Friedlander said. “People are the main part of our company…and we have to have those people armed with the right resources to be effective.”
Time invested in learning and preparing now will help when new systems go live, he added.
“We have to make sure we’re operating in a way that the data is clean, the processes are understood, so when the tech does land, we’re in a strong position to have a great kickoff event rather than work backwards and say, ‘Well now let’s learn everything,’” he said.