Consumer packaged goods brands are no longer competing solely for visibility, but for choice. According to the report „The EY State of Consumer Products”, based on a survey of more than 850 senior executives in the consumer goods sector and interviews with over 20 leaders from around the world, 71% of respondents agree that structural disruptions make rapid transformation essential, but the reality is that most organizations remain unprepared for this change.
The report highlights how artificial intelligence (AI), platforms, and retailer ecosystems are reshaping how demand is created and leveraged, exposing a growing gap between organizations rethinking their decision-making processes and those that continue to operate in silos.
„As artificial intelligence and digital ecosystems increasingly influence how consumers discover and evaluate products, competitive advantage is no longer solely about efficiency, but about organizations' ability to make coherent, integrated, and data-driven business decisions. The challenge is not exclusively technological, but lies in how companies align their sales, marketing, and e-commerce functions, clarify decision-making responsibilities, and integrate artificial intelligence to support human judgment. Without this transformation, the risk for many brands is losing relevance in an increasingly algorithm-driven selection process.” says Georgiana Iancu, Partner, leader of the Retail and Consumer Products sector and coordinator of the Indirect Taxes practice, EY Romania.
Success now depends on visibility on artificial intelligence-based platforms.
The report highlights how an ecosystem-based business model is already beginning to take shape. Over 77% of the organizations surveyed say that partnerships with retailers, platforms, and digital channels are now essential to how they conduct their business. As these players increasingly control the discovery process through search, recommendations, and retailers’ media channels, brands are no longer competing solely for consumers’ attention, but for visibility and priority within these systems.
At the same time, most organizations remain unprepared for what lies ahead. Although 47% of the executives surveyed stated that influencing algorithmic product recommendations will be critically important over the next five years, only 21% of respondents believe they are currently capable of doing so. Readiness for AI- and agent-driven commerce remains low, with many companies still in the early stages of planning or testing for key capabilities, such as AI-agent-optimized brands, algorithmic visibility, and AI-driven procurement processes. Although progress has been made in established areas such as demand signals and ROI accountability, organizations continue to lag behind in emerging capabilities that are expected to define competitive advantage in the future.
The result is a growing gap between the pace of change and the level of organizational readiness. Companies that transform specialized experimentation into scalable capabilities may be better positioned to compete, while others risk falling behind.
Governance and fragmentation remain major obstacles
The fragmentation at the commercial system level continues to represent a significant obstacle to progress, with key capabilities remaining disconnected across functions.
- Only 11% of the organizations surveyed reported that their sales, marketing, and e-commerce departments function as a unified growth engine, and confidence in their ability to make effective business decisions across the entire workflow remains limited
- 15% of the organizations surveyed report fully integrated business data that is routinely used to support cross-functional decisions
- The complexity of governance and the lack of clarity regarding decision-making authority are the main obstacles to transformation (35%), followed by consensus at the leadership level (31%). Notably, technology and fundamental data issues rank only third (30%), suggesting that while investments are often prioritized for technology, fundamental organizational issues are the ones that must be addressed first.
Regarding the future, executives remain divided on how radical the evolution of sales and marketing functions will be. Mature organizations anticipate greater complexity driven by regulations, data fragmentation, and ecosystem dependencies, and recognize the need to consolidate fundamental aspects of data, governance, and operational model integration to remain competitive.
AI-driven decisions, but responsibility remains with humans
Although AI capabilities are expanding rapidly, business decision-making is still deliberately carried out by humans. Leading organizations design systems in which AI complements human judgment, improving speed and consistency without compromising human accountability and trust. However, 61% of respondents say their organizations prioritize human judgment over fully automated decision-making carried out by artificial intelligence.
Perspective
In a context where the procurement process is increasingly influenced by algorithms and agent-based interfaces, commercial success is being reshaped by how decisions are made within these systems. However, few companies have rethought how sales and marketing decisions are correlated throughout the entire flow, creating a growing decision deficit where strategies reflect the future, but operational models remain outdated, leaving many brands overlooked. Reducing this deficit will require a more connected decision-making process, more robust data, and clearer responsibilities to influence algorithm-driven discovery mechanisms.