CPGs Use Guacamole and Super Bowl to Trot Out AI-Powered Consumer Experiences

Artificial intelligence (AI) has entered the consumer-packaged goods arena in a big way, giving consumers more touchpoints and engagement with household brands. In fact, AI is even playing in the Super Bowl.

Expect to see AI deployed in several Super Bowl commercials and marketing initiatives around the big event. The latest new in this area comes from an announcement last week from the Avocados From Mexico brand. With more than an estimated 50 million pounds of guacamole — enough to cover a football field 20 feet deep — expected to be served on Sunday (Feb. 11), to say the company has a stake in the game is an understatement. It’s introducing a new GuacAImole tool. The generative AI platform, created in collaboration with digital experience agency 270B, is tied into a virtual #BetterBowl game day viewing party.  By using text, image recognition and image generation to cook up personalized recipes, Avocados From Mexico is hoping to engage younger consumers.

The company is claiming to be the first in the consumer produce space utilize multi-modal AI. Once a consumer uploads either a picture of ingredients or a finished dish, AI generates a guacamole recipe using those items. Each personalized recipe will be delivered with an ingredient list, step-by-step directions, flavor combinations, food pairings and an AI-generated concept image to show what the guacamole should look like. The company says its research shows 58% of all Super Bowl viewers plan to make guacamole. With north of 100 million viewers expected … you don’t need AI to do the math.

While Avocados From Mexico is betting on a big event, other consumer packaged goods (CPG) companies have been steadily using AI in sales, marketing, distribution and enriching the customer experience. Procter & Gamble (P&G) is using AI to improve manufacturing processes, product design and to inform marketing campaigns. Creative execution for Pampers, for example, is being optimized by analyzing more than 140 different pieces of creative through a program called AI Studios, which allows the CPG giant to test ads versus a database of various reactions.

“There are lots of applications already being used for AI,” P&G Chief Brand Officer Mark Pritchard said while speaking about the Pampers applications during last year’s Cannes Lions Festival. He cited “dynamic content creation that allows you to be able to then reach [consumers] based more on what their needs are. The way we’re looking at it is in terms of the practical applications. Those applications make our media better and more precise and be able to reach the people we want and make our advertising more effective so we can have greater impact and drive more growth.”

According to the Consumer Products and Retail Executive Pulse survey from Ernst & Young, 99.6% of respondents are experimenting with generative AI technologies in some capacity. Ninety percent say their company has plans to increase its investment in IT or emerging technologies over the next year, with AI and ML or generative AI (31%) heading the list followed by digital supply chain (21%) and cybersecurity (20%).

AI is playing a critical role in supply chain data for CPG companies as well. Cobus Van Heerden, manufacturing analytics product manager at GE Digital, told AWS recently that supply chain disruptions and a need to increase manufacturing efficiency have been a major driver toward the use of AI in the CPG category. GE Digital works with P&G, among other CPG manufacturers, to streamline operations and lead their digital transformation. For example, GE Digital develops “outcomes maps” using AI to determine the specific measures and metrics that aiming to deliver. He said CPG companies will continue to use AI to revamp the planning and scheduling of production and operations to help manufacturers become more agile, adjusting when, where and how products are produced to improve efficiency and sustainability across the entire product lifecycle.

“Based on the outcomes map, we outline the priorities, taking into consideration the client’s digital transformation journey and the timing of deployment and implementation,” Van Heerden said. “At the end of the day, our priorities are the client’s priorities, meaning we’ll always put the client’s needs first. We won’t implement or recommend solutions unless the client is ready and has laid sufficient groundwork in their digital transformation to even be able to leverage the full benefits that AI can offer.”