AI has moved quickly up the agenda for FMCG businesses during 2026.
What felt like experimentation for many businesses 12–18 months ago is increasingly becoming part of everyday conversations around marketing, innovation, supply chain, customer planning, consumer insight and commercial decision-making.
But the interesting question is no longer “Will AI change FMCG?”
It is “Where is it actually making a difference?”
The answer, so far, is more nuanced than some of the headlines suggest.
From experimentation to strategic priority
There is little doubt that AI has become a boardroom issue.
Deloitte's 2026 research into retail and consumer businesses found that 75% of executives consider AI a top strategic priority. However, only 16.5% said they could currently quantify a return from their AI investment. Enterprise-wide deployment also remains in single digits for both retail and FMCG businesses. (Deloitte)
BCG and The Consumer Goods Forum reached a similar conclusion. Their 2026 research found that around 75% of FMCG businesses remain in pilot or exploration mode, with only 18% scaling meaningful AI impact. More than half of businesses surveyed also do not formally measure the ROI of their AI investments.
So 2026 isn't necessarily the year AI transformed FMCG.
It may be the year the industry moved from asking “Should we be using AI?” to “How do we make it deliver something measurable?”
Productivity is the obvious starting point
One of the clearest impacts so far has been productivity.
Teams are using AI to analyse information faster, produce first drafts, summarise research, interrogate data and automate repetitive tasks.
For commercial teams, that could mean spending less time manipulating spreadsheets or preparing reports and more time with customers, consumers and colleagues.
The opportunity becomes more interesting when AI moves beyond individual productivity and starts improving the decisions being made.
FMCG businesses are experimenting with AI across demand forecasting, pricing, revenue growth management, customer planning, product development, consumer insight and marketing.
The technology can process huge amounts of information and identify patterns that would take people considerably longer to uncover.
The challenge is turning that capability into measurable commercial value.
Product innovation is one area moving quickly
Product development is one of the areas where AI could have a particularly significant impact.
FMCG businesses are using AI to explore consumer trends, generate product concepts and test different combinations of ingredients, cost and nutritional requirements before committing to physical development.
McKinsey's 2026 research into food and beverage highlights the need for businesses to harness technology and AI as they respond to changing consumer behaviour and increasingly fragmented sources of growth. (McKinsey & Company)
Deloitte's research also found that FMCG businesses are currently seeing more impact from AI in product development than retailers, with 27% of FMCG respondents identifying product development as an area of impact. (Deloitte)
The potential is significant.
Instead of relying solely on traditional research and development processes, businesses can use AI to explore a much broader range of possibilities before deciding which ideas warrant further investment.
For an industry where speed to market can be critical, that could become a meaningful advantage.
The consumer is changing too
AI isn't only changing what happens inside FMCG businesses.
It is beginning to influence how consumers discover and choose products.
Deloitte UK's 2026 Digital Consumer Trends research found that 63% of UK consumers had used a generative AI application by May 2026, although only 10% were using a standalone Gen AI application daily. (Deloitte)
Shopping behaviour is moving in the same direction.
Adyen's 2026 UK research found that the proportion of consumers using AI assistants when shopping had more than doubled year-on-year, from 12% to 28%. Even more significantly, 44% of UK shoppers said they were open to allowing AI to handle the entire shopping journey, including making the final purchase. (Adyen)
This creates a new question for FMCG brands.
Historically, businesses have competed for visibility on the shelf, in retailer search results, on Google and across social media.
Increasingly, they may also need to think about how their products appear when a consumer asks an AI assistant what to buy.
The rise of the “algorithmic shelf”
This could become one of the most interesting implications of AI for FMCG.
McKinsey's research into European consumers found that AI is already being used to compare brands, products, prices and reviews, while consumers are increasingly using AI to discover products and inform purchase decisions. (McKinsey & Company)
BCG similarly found that shopping-related Gen AI use grew by 35% between February and November 2025, with consumers using AI not just for major purchases but also for everyday categories including groceries. (BCG Global)
The traditional shelf isn't disappearing.
But there may be another shelf emerging — an algorithmic shelf, where brands compete to be recommended by AI rather than simply displayed to consumers.
That could have significant implications for brand visibility, product information, reviews, pricing, content and how clearly a brand communicates its proposition.
Revenue growth could be another major opportunity
Revenue Growth Management is another area worth watching.
FMCG businesses already work with huge amounts of information across pricing, promotions, distribution, customers, competitors and consumer behaviour.
AI has the potential to bring more of that information together and model different scenarios before decisions are made.
Rather than simply analysing what happened after a promotion, for example, AI could increasingly help commercial teams assess different pricing or promotional options and their potential consequences.
That doesn't remove commercial judgement.
It potentially gives commercial teams better information on which to base it.
In a market where margins remain under pressure and retailers continue to demand value, better pricing, promotional and assortment decisions could be one of the most valuable applications of AI.
The gap between adoption and impact
Perhaps the most important observation from 2026 is that AI adoption doesn't automatically equal commercial impact.
McKinsey's 2026 European grocery research found that 47% of grocery CEOs rank AI and automation among their top three priorities, yet 70% report no measurable EBIT impact from AI so far, or say it is too early to tell. Only 3% reported an EBIT increase of more than 5% from AI. (McKinsey & Company)
That gap is important.
The technology is developing quickly, but implementing AI successfully across a large FMCG organisation is not simply a technology project. It involves data, systems, governance, people, processes and — perhaps most importantly — a clear commercial reason for doing it.
The question for leadership teams therefore shouldn't simply be:
“Where can we use AI?”
It should be:
“Where could AI materially improve the way we grow, serve customers or operate the business?”
What does this mean for FMCG?
AI isn't replacing the fundamentals of FMCG.
Consumers still need a reason to buy. Brands still need to create demand. Retailers still need profitable relationships. Products still need to deliver.
But AI is beginning to change how quickly businesses can understand, decide and execute.
The businesses likely to benefit most won't necessarily be those using AI in the most places.
They may be those that identify a handful of commercially important problems where AI can make a measurable difference — and then scale what works.
2026 may therefore be remembered less as the year AI transformed FMCG and more as the year it moved firmly from something businesses were experimenting with to something they need to understand and integrate into how they operate.
The real impact may come next — as FMCG businesses move beyond pilots and start embedding AI into the decisions that drive growth.
I think this version is much stronger for an Allexo newsletter because the research gives you a credible market observation rather than making the article sound like generic AI commentary. The particularly useful statistic is the Deloitte 75% strategic priority vs 16.5% able to quantify returns — it neatly captures where FMCG actually is in 2026.
