The Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG) industry's decades-long winning formula has hit a turning point. Companies that once counted on predictable growth now find themselves scrambling to maintain it.

These challenges go beyond typical market fluctuations. Consumer preferences shift so quickly that by the time trends are identified, they've changed. Economic uncertainty adds pressure, with shoppers seeking value, switching brands easily, and choosing private labels. Simultaneously, they demand "better-for-you" options that force constant reformulation and innovation. Managing products across traditional stores, e-commerce platforms, and direct-to-consumer channels exacerbates these challenges.

For a growing number of CPG companies, AI has become the key to navigating this new reality. From predicting demand before trends fully emerge to creating truly personalized experiences at scale, AI helps companies see around corners and capture growth that traditional approaches often miss. This technology goes beyond helping teams work faster—it makes it possible for them to do things that weren’t possible before.

How CPG Companies are Using AI Today

While AI applications in CPG continue to expand, three use cases are having the biggest impact in 2025:

• Predictive Demand Planning: By analyzing historical sales data alongside weather patterns, social trends, and promotional calendars, AI helps companies forecast demand with much greater precision. Kellogg's, for example, uses predictive analytics to optimize promotional calendars and minimize stockouts during the busy back-to-school and holiday seasons. The result is better inventory allocation and healthier working capital. Some companies are taking this further with AI-powered tools like smart shelves and predictive robotics to improve in-store replenishment and end-to-end supply chain efficiency.

• Computer Vision for Retail Execution: PepsiCo uses AI-powered computer vision to monitor store shelves, allowing them to automatically spot gaps and send restock alerts directly to merchandisers' mobile devices. This visibility reduces the need for manual shelf checks while ensuring products are available where customers expect to find them.

• Personalized Marketing and Promotions: AI uses purchase histories, browsing patterns, and demographics to deliver individualized offers. These tools help brands match promotions to consumer intent, making outreach more effective and measurable.

These early use cases offer clear ROI and use data that's already available. As companies see results in these areas, they're starting to explore bigger possibilities.  

The Shift to True Personalization

One of these bigger possibilities is the transition from mass personalization to true individualization. AI is advancing beyond segmented marketing to create personalized experiences tailored to each consumer.

Unilever already uses generative AI to create region-specific marketing content, enabling it to cut production time and costs. And while that's a great first step, the benefits of this technology go even further. Today, we're moving toward AI-driven custom products where algorithms deliver new flavor combinations, packaging designs, and even entirely new product categories based on emerging consumer trends.

Some brands are also starting to experiment with AI-driven virtual personas and immersive experiences as a future avenue for campaign testing and consumer engagement.

So What's Holding CPG Companies Back?

If the benefits are so clear, why isn't every CPG company running AI at scale? Several persistent challenges keep many companies stuck in pilot mode.

• Data silos plague most organizations. Sales data resides in one system, supply chain data in another, and marketing data in a third. Without integrated data, AI can't deliver its full potential. Companies need clean, structured information across departments—a significant undertaking for organizations with decades of legacy systems in place.

• Cultural resistance remains a major hurdle. Employees have real concerns about AI replacing their jobs. The most successful implementations emphasize "human in the loop" approaches where AI provides insights and people make decisions. When teams see AI as a tool that enhances their capabilities rather than threatens them, adoption accelerates.

• Many AI projects begin as isolated experiments. A department runs a pilot, sees some success, but can't expand beyond its silo. Without top-down commitment and cross-functional buy-in, these initiatives rarely achieve their full potential or deliver enterprise-wide value.

• The skills gap extends beyond hiring data scientists. Companies need business users who understand how to work with AI tools in their daily workflows. When teams spend more time trying to access data than actually using it, momentum stalls and frustration builds. Forward-thinking teams are training everyday users and embedding AI directly into the tools they already rely on.  

Although these barriers are common, they don't have to be permanent. CPG leaders seeing results treat AI as a strategic path, not just a technology project.  

How to Get Started

If you're in the CPG industry, you're aware of how rapidly it is evolving. To stay competitive, the question is no longer whether to adopt AI in your organization, it's how quickly you can move from isolated pilot programs to fully integrated intelligence.

For CPG leaders ready to move beyond experimentation, we recommend starting with a single use case that matters. Pick a problem that's painful, measurable, and scalable across brands, categories, and geographies. Then, get cross-functional alignment early and publicize your wins. When teams see how AI improves their day-to-day work, they’re more likely to adopt and share those wins across the organization. This cultural adoption is often the hardest part, but it's also the most important.

When employees embrace these tools and achieve better results, their individual roles improve, and the entire organization benefits. It truly is a win-win situation—and the gap between companies that figure this out and those that don't is widening every quarter.

Are you ready to explore what AI could do for your CPG operations? Let's talk about building an AI strategy that delivers real results.

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Demetria Veal, Quantum Rise CPG Ambassador