The FMCG industry is worth billions of dollars. To compete and grow, there is a constant need to bring more innovations and improvements. And it’s no longer just about expansion. Instead, it’s more and more about surviving in a market where everyone else is doing it. Leveraging AI for FMCG is particularly relevant as there is a large amount of data to process, operations to optimize, and decisions to make. The potential of AI technology in the FMCG sector is enormous, and it is growing rapidly.
According to research conducted by IDC, by 2025, artificial intelligence will be embedded in at least 90% of enterprise apps. Most of these will be AI-enabled apps that provide progressive improvements to make applications more dynamic and smarter.
It’s interesting to observe how Artificial Intelligence offers tremendous benefits to FMCG businesses by increasing efficiency and effectiveness across multiple functions. It’s also evident that the global FMCG is quickly waking up to the AI possibility.
AI for FMCG helps improve customer experience, gain predictive insights into customer behavior, and facilitate higher engagement. AI also allows for a lot of automation in commercial processes, which can help save money and time. According to IBM, retail and brand executives expect cognitive automation capabilities to help them save up to 7% on operating costs.
What is the impact of Artificial Intelligence on FMCG?
With so many departments, transactions, and records, running a business without monotonous and repetitive work is impossible. However, if there is a lot of data, there is always room for optimization, which leads to increased revenue and better decision-making. This is where AI for FMCG can add the most value. So, let’s check out how AI is impacting the FMCG industry.
Improving Productivity
For FMCG companies to acquire or maintain competitiveness, productivity, real-time traceability, and operational efficiency are critical. They will require access to privileged insights, the ability to automate procedures, and an outstanding customer experience to succeed in a market that has never been more competitive.
The pandemic served as a wake-up call for the entire business about how to leverage technology and use it to stay profitable during a crisis. Many businesses are now experimenting with innovation, reimagining their operations and operational models utilizing emerging technologies. Because of the enforced social distance principles, they are becoming more dynamic, flexible, and responsive.
Autonomous material handling equipment has reduced dependency on human operators and increased efficiency while assuring high operational safety, resulting in zero inventory loss or pilferage, leading to improved productivity. AI for FMCG will gain profitability by 38% and improve productivity by 40% by 2035, according to a
report by Accenture.
Analyzing Data to Gain Actionable Insights
In the FMCG sector, every inquiry, purchase, service request, and other activity generates a vast amount of data every second. The information gathered will enable FMCG companies to better understand consumer behavior. Working with human resources to accomplish the above costs time and resources. For FMCG companies, AI serves as a powerful and effective data analyst, analyzing all customer data and providing actionable insights.
AI for FMCG applications is being used to obtain a deeper, data-driven understanding of their business, which leads to better decision-making. Companies may advocate innovation in critical emphasis areas, including marketing strategy, customer service, and operations, by using AI-enabled data analysis.
AI is redefining what’s possible for businesses by assisting them in uncovering meaningful insights from data sets, ranging from inventory to customer sentiment. Because of the competition, niche customer creation and micro-targeting are becoming priorities in the FMCG and retail sectors, and AI will play a key role in formulating strategies for FMCG businesses.
Understanding Consumer Journey
Consumers now have high expectations for the customer experience, and they are equally prepared to praise firms that exceed those standards as they are to reject those that do not. Organizations must create delight at every level of the client journey to build loyalty.
The inability to handle complex situations and the frequent need for modification to suit new scenarios were early limitations of AI for customer support. AI for FMCG has progressed to the point where it can manage the customer data and deliver delightful experiences across the consumer journey. Today’s AI-based customer care systems can learn from a wide range of data sources, including unstructured data, thanks to advances in machine learning.
AI for FMCG Helps in Product Placement
In the FMCG and retail industries, product placement is crucial, and choosing the ideal position for a product is one of the most difficult tasks. In order to make the suitable product effective in a store, factors such as what the target demographics are looking for, what things combine well together, and what they’ve been purchasing must all be considered.
AI can perform comprehensive data analysis and then suggest to FMCG companies where each product should be displayed, how much stock is left on each product, and what the perfect price should be. It assists businesses in saving time and human resources while also increasing profits.
By categorizing both distribution retail outlets and customers based on seasonality, location, and demographics, AI for FMCG can go well beyond traditional market segmentation. AI systems can also propose places where specific products are always in great demand, in addition to such advanced segmentation.
AI systems can assist businesses in selecting the optimal location and retailers for their items by using data from prior years’ sales of various products. For example, if a large number of baby toys have been sold in a given location over the last five years. The AI systems can then recommend product placement suitable for 5-year-olds in the stores in that location.
Conclusion
Although there is no one-size-fits-all strategy for technological integration, the future is clear for FMCG, and artificial intelligence is not a passing trend. The way consumer demand varies will reveal a plethora of patterns and correlations. This is a goldmine of important information for FMCG companies that must be examined to uncover tactics that can provide them a competitive advantage.
AI for FMCG can be performed efficiently by using modern tools and algorithms. An increasing number of FMCG companies are turning to AI-driven automation to improve their consumer experience and brand engagement. The advantages of combining your vast data and using strong algorithms to uncover insights about your operations, customers, and marketing plans are not too weak to ignore.
If you are enthused about knowing more about how AI can help you grow your business, CCom Digital is here for your help. Our experience and expertise can enable you to run your FMCG business more efficiently and effectively with optimal utilization of time and resources.