How AI is used as a key ingredient at Cosentino

The humble story of Cosentino starts in marble in southeastern Spain in 1945, and subsequent generations have gradually expanded into more diverse materials and color palettes, so now the company operates in more than 120 countries. And what also began in a small factory is now a vast complex exceeding 27 million square feet where machines, cranes, and robots move freely, loading pallets full of product destined for every corner of the globe.

Together with partner Microsoft, Cosentino is tackling, like many others, how to most effectively adopt and maximize the potential of AI, and it will be the first industrial company in Spain to adopt the Microsoft Discovery platform. This technology, designed to accelerate scientific research, is particularly interesting to a company whose success is based on the discovery and validation of new materials for kitchens, facades, and interiors.

The research platform developed by Microsoft combines agentic AI, high-performance computing, and advanced KM to accelerate scientific and engineering processes by automating tasks such as literature reviews, hypothesis generation, simulations, and analyses, in order to integrate public and private data into a unified environment for researchers and engineers.

For Cosentino, Discovery opens the door to anticipating optimal formulations before production, and reduces the need for physical experimentation. The expected impact is a significant acceleration of innovation, greater research efficiency, and the possibility of exploring new materials.

AI for design

Today, AI is being used at the company to design countertops and building materials, valued precisely for their diversity and color. While Europe generally opts for more subdued kitchen colors, it’s not the same in other parts of the world. So AI can save a significant amount of work when translating designs of particular tastes onto surfaces. Where four or five iterations were previously required for a finish, for instance, now only one is needed. This converts into time savings and increased efficiency, but also into the ability to anticipate trends.

In the sector of interior design, similar to the fashion world, manufacturers release catalogs showcasing new materials and collections in spring and autumn, as the majority of orders are placed before summer or Christmas — periods when people typically display their home improvement projects.

Valentín Tijeras, Cosentino’s corporate VP of product, R&D, and quality, says AI not only reduces costs but also helps develop creativity. “It’s like talking to your thesis advisor, who suggests new ideas,” he says.

CLARity of AI

The latest major contribution of AI to Cosentino’s business isn’t in design or the discovery of new surfaces, however, but in managing its sprawling sales force of 4,000 across the globe. Their biggest concern, the thing that wastes the most time: process management.

The company estimates at least a third of their workday is spent managing schedules and reporting on their activities. In practice, this means more than a thousand people are idle, or not contributing clear value where the company needs it most.  

To streamline these processes, Cosentino developed CLAR, an AI agent for sales management based on Microsoft technology. Its operation is practical and simple, leveraging what a salesman, or anyone for that matter, never loses sight of: their smartphone.

Rafael Domene, Cosentino’s global CIO, has been integral in delivering CLAR, which enables any operator through a mobile device to use voice commands to consult their schedule, prepare meetings, and access key information for each business opportunity without the need to interact directly with multiple applications or processes.

CLAR manages these tasks, automatically capturing, recording, and keeping information up to date. This allows sales teams to focus on higher-value activities and move toward a more agile, personalized, and efficient customer relationship.

Keeping the workforce intact

Ángel Madariaga Álvarez, Cosentino’s VP of engineering and projects, says that even with advancements like CLAR and other AI-enabled points of automation, such innovation doesn’t result in layoffs. “Engineers rotate through different roles, receive training, and learn new functions,” he says, adding that the company continues to train and hire new people every year despite AI’s impact on efficiency.

With these approaches, Cosentino aims to evolve toward an autonomous enterprise, a model in which people, AI, agents, data, and processes work in an integrated, harmonious way to drive smarter and more efficient management based on value creation.