Chris Curtis
Founder & CEO, MorningAI
Previously AB InBev and McKinsey.
Presents the findings from MorningAI’s 2026 beverage AI research.
Full recording
The research presentation and panel discussion in one recording.
What we covered
AI is shaping every decision behind beverage growth.
The research follows those decisions from the shopper’s answer to the buyer’s view of the category and the company’s own plans. This session explores what changes when AI has a voice in all three.
The AI shelf
AI answers are becoming a new shopping channel: shoppers ask what to buy, and AI chooses which brands to recommend. To get recommended, a brand needs to own a clear occasion and make it obvious everywhere AI looks.
The whole P&L
Most companies have deployed AI tools without rebuilding how they work, and that caps the value. For AI to improve the P&L, it needs the company’s goals, rules and one shared set of facts, so every team’s agents work toward the same result.
The buyer meeting
Retail buyers now use AI built on their own sales data to see how every product in the category is performing. To win the meeting, brands need AI of their own to prepare for every account and prove what their product adds.
Key takeaways
In our interviews, most beverage teams use AI for basic productivity (emails, decks and descriptive analytics), and few use it for higher-value work (sales enablement, financial planning and new product innovation). And the budgets are not catching up: only 5% of consumer goods and retail companies expect to increase their AI investment by 30% or more next year, while 13% of technology companies do.
Sources: MorningAI interviews, 2026; McKinsey, The state of AI in 2026, August 2026
According to NIQ, 51% of U.S. consumers used an AI tool to help them shop in the past month. In our research, shoppers ask AI about moments, such as what to bring to a barbecue or what to drink with breakfast, and AI decides which categories and brands make the answer.
Sources: NIQ Agentic Commerce Tracker, September 2026; MorningAI research
5–10%
A brand’s own website 65%+
Third-party sources, in CPG A brand’s own website makes up only 5 to 10% of what AI search draws on, and in CPG more than 65% of the sources AI cites are third party. Your PR plan and your SEO plan are now the same plan.
Source: McKinsey, New front door to the internet, October 2025
- Brand A+18%
- Brand B+14%
- Brand C+12%
- Your SKU+9%
- Brand D+6%
- Brand E+4%
Retailers such as Walmart now give their buyers AI assistants built on their own sales data. In seconds, a buyer can see how your SKUs perform against every competitor. Brands need to come in with proof of what they add: new shoppers, bigger baskets and sales that are new rather than switched from another SKU.
Illustrative example
| Setup | Gain |
|---|---|
| One person without AI | Baseline |
| Two-person team without AI | +0.24 |
| One person with AI | +0.37 |
| Two-person team with AI | +0.39 |
Headcount no longer caps what a team can deliver. In a study of 791 P&G professionals, one person using AI came up with product ideas as good as a two-person team without AI. Teams using AI were three times as likely to land a top-10% idea as people working alone without it.
Source: Organization Science, 2026
| Leader | Each team’s own AI | One shared brain |
|---|---|---|
| CMO | +4% | +5% |
| CSO | +9% | +5% |
| CFO | −2% | +5% |
| CEO | +6% | +5% |
| CTO | +1% | +5% |
With one shared brain, every function’s AI works from the same goals, rules and data, so the whole company decides from one set of facts. Without it, each team’s AI chases its own target, volume for sales and margin for finance, and leadership gets a different answer from every function.
Illustrative example
Chief Sales Officer
Key account manager
- Researches accountsAccount researcher, on call
- Builds sell-in decksSell-in deck builder, on call
- Pulls scan dataScan data watcher, always on
- Sketches displaysDisplay designer, on call
- Writes follow-upsFollow-up writer, on call
Revenue growth manager
- Audits trade spendTrade spend auditor, always on
- Reviews promotionsPromo analyst, always on
- Models price and packPrice-pack modeler, on call
- Builds forecastsForecaster, on call
E-commerce manager
- Checks search rankAI shelf monitor, always on
- Rewrites listingsListing optimizer, on call
- Reads reviewsReview analyst, always on
- Adjusts ad bidsAd bid manager, always on
Chief Marketing Officer
Brand manager
- Tracks competitorsCompetitor tracker, always on
- Writes briefsBrief writer, on call
- Tests conceptsConcept tester, on call
- Researches marketsMarket researcher, on call
Social media manager
- Writes copyCopywriter, on call
- Designs postsDesigner, on call
- Scouts trendsTrend scout, always on
- Answers commentsCommunity manager, always on
- Reports resultsPerformance analyst, always on
Shopper marketing manager
- Plans retail programsRetail program planner, on call
- Designs POSPOS designer, on call
- Writes promo copyPromo copywriter, on call
Consumer insights manager
- Monitors socialSocial listener, always on
- Mines reviewsReview miner, always on
- Builds surveysSurvey builder, on call
- Recruits panelsSynthetic panel, on call
The next step in AI adoption is turning every employee into a manager of AI agents. Each person hands repeatable work like research, first drafts and reporting to their own agents, and spends more of their time on strategy and insight. In our illustration of a beverage commercial team, seven managers lead 29 agents, and account research that took two or three hours takes five minutes.
Illustrative example. Partial view: finance, accounting, HR and operations get their own agents too.
What we heard from the interviews
There’s a lot of expectation, but we haven’t been able to get aligned internally on how to get value.
For our strategic meetings, the bulk of our prep is done with AI.
I need to know if optimizing for conversion rate is hurting my contribution margin.
Now you can just plug it in, and you can create 10 different display concepts to bring it to life.
Where to start
Three moves that shift your program from SEO to GEO.
| Move | What it changes | Where to start |
|---|---|---|
| Audit AI citations | Reveals which affiliate partners and creators are shaping your AI presence, and whether your brand appears at all. | MorningAI’s AI Visibility Check-up |
| Invest in narrative partners | Shifts budget toward the top-of-funnel authority that drives AI search visibility, not just last-click conversions. | Activate the publishers and expert creators in your program who hold category credibility, then recruit where gaps exist. |
| Reframe as a GEO strategy | Changes internal measurement, partner priorities and what affiliate and creator programs are for. | Redefine success as AI citations and brand presence alongside conversions. |
Get the full picture
Get our forthcoming white paper and AI visibility benchmarks for the beverage industry, so your team can evaluate where your brand stands.
- The full white paper
Findings from conversations with 50+ beverage leaders on shopper discovery, retailer decisions, and business performance.
- Beverage AI visibility data
Industry benchmarks on which brands and categories appear in AI-generated shopping recommendations, offering context for your brand’s presence and gaps.
Where do you stand?
Start with a
360° AI assessment.
Talk with our team about how AI sees your brand, what retail buyers can see, and how your teams make decisions. We’ll help you identify where to focus.
Chat with our team-
ShopperCategory and marketing teams
Does AI name your brand when shoppers ask what to drink?
-
RetailerSales teams
Do you see what the retailer’s AI sees about your brand?
-
TeamsCEO and leadership team
Does your leadership team make decisions from one set of facts?