When is caution riskier than action?

For the consumer-packaged goods industry, that moment is now, according to the clarion call of a new white paper, “From Pilot to Powerhouse: The Future of AI in CPG” from Simon Miles of Lighthouse Advisory. 

Drawing on interviews with senior executives across global CPG organizations, the report finds that companies in the CPG sector are at a crucial crossroads. Leading companies are scaling artificial intelligence from experimental pilots to enterprise-wide transformation engines—and laggards are in danger of being left in the dust.

Although 78% of CPG companies currently use AI in at least one business function, the gap between experimentation and full-scale transformation is widening. Most companies are dabbling with AI pilots, but only a select few are achieving the scale and impact that will define the next generation of CPG market leaders, the report warns.

 

Beyond Easy Wins in Marketing

The white paper finds that the majority of CPG companies are dipping their toes in the AI pool in marketing, where generative AI tools are delivering quick and easy wins. Some CPG companies report that they can refresh over 100 product description pages in five minutes—work that previously took weeks. One organization reports a 21% lift in search rankings from AI-optimized content.

But AI’s true transformative potential can only be tapped when AI moves beyond content creation into core functions. Leading CPG companies are deploying machine learning models for revenue growth management, supply chain forecasting, and field sales optimization.

A growth-first mentality will separate tomorrow’s winners and losers in the CPG sector, the report projects. “We are leveraging AI for growth,” explains one CPG leader. “If it comes with efficiencies that’s great, but it’s really refueling growth.” 

The report examines what the most successful AI scaling efforts have in common, and the answer is twofold: Firstly, they’re closely guiding pilots by establishing AI councils to prioritize initiatives and provide responsible privacy and ethics guardrails; and second, they’re monitoring their data to measure concrete ROI benchmarks. This lets them fast-track the AI pilots that are achieving liftoff and scale them across the business.

 

The AI Fear Factor

Successfully scaling AI in the CPG sector isn’t just a technological challenge—it’s an emotional one, the findings show. Fear of job loss is creating ground-level resistance to AI adoption, notably among non-digital teams. Many CPG employees still think of using AI in their jobs as “cheating,” while others are simply flustered by using the tech.

Factor in AI talent shortages and the problems multiply. More skilled technologists like data scientists and AI engineers within the organization could smooth the path for, and ease fears of, adoption. “If we had four people instead of one, we’d be six months ahead,” one senior marketer told Lighthouse.

For CPG companies leading the way in AI, change management is enabling their success. Those ahead of the curve are offering practical training and embedding “AI champions,” users already comfortable with the technology, within business units. 

In particular, leaders report, the hands-on use of AI copilot tools are helping assuage fears and seed AI literacy. “Copilot is helping people build skills so they can start to envision bigger ideas,” says one CPG executive.

Future-forward executives also have their eye on the next frontier: AI agents that formulate, optimize, and make autonomous decisions. Instead of copilot AI supporting CPG workers, this could lead to a paradigm shift where workers will support AI. “Account managers won’t negotiate, agents will,” a CPG executive from a leading company predicts. “The winners will be the ones who build the best agents.”

 

Seven Steps to AI Success

The research not only highlights the urgency of AI adoption in the CPG sector. It also offers seven concrete recommendations for CPG companies to successfully navigate AI adoption:

  • Develop an AI maturity framework across strategy, governance, capability, and performance.
  • Clarify ownership and accountability for AI at global and regional level.
  • Focus on fewer, higher-value use cases that align with growth or operational imperatives.
  • Invest in upskilling and embed AI literacy into all levels of the organization.
  • Create an innovation infrastructure that includes safe environments for testing and scaled deployment.
  • Strengthen governance with principles for responsible AI and mechanisms to monitor bias, risk, and compliance.
  • Keep people at the center. Ensure human oversight, maintain transparency, and prioritize experiences that empower rather than replace.

The message from CPG industry leaders in the report is clear: AI transformation is not a technical challenge—it’s a business transformation. For those still treating AI as a side project or delaying large-scale efforts, the window for adoption is rapidly closing. In an industry where agility and innovation drive competitive advantage, the question is no longer whether to embrace AI, but how quickly you can scale it effectively.

In other words, the pilot phase in the CPG sector is over. The powerhouse era has begun.