Regina Salazar on Building Novelis’ AI-Powered, Sustainable Smart Factories

What does it take to digitally transform a global manufacturing giant? In this episode of Technovation, host Peter High speaks with Regina Salazar, Chief Digital and Information Officer at Novelis, about how the world’s largest aluminum recycler is scaling enterprise-wide innovation through technology.

Regina shares how she unified IT and digital into a single operating model, launched a global business relationship framework, and enhanced Novelis’ data architecture to support AI at scale. She also discusses the company’s ambitious smart factory in Alabama, how digital twins are reshaping operations, and Novelis’ roadmap to becoming a tech-enabled, sustainable enterprise.

Highlights include:

• Factory of the Future: Inside Novelis’ new Alabama facility powered by digital twins, automation, and a next-gen MES platform.

• AI in Action: Real-world examples of predictive maintenance and cycle time optimization through AI and edge computing.

• Generative AI Strategy: How Novelis built a secure internal GPT on Azure while leveraging Copilot and Moveworks across the enterprise.

• Smart Robotics: Deploying robotic “dogs” to inspect hazardous environments and reduce risk.

• Vision 3×30: Novelis’ company-wide transformation focused on data literacy, governance, and technology architecture by 2030.