Consumer Goods Leaders: AI Top Priority as 57% Expect Increased Instability

Key Takeaways

Consumer goods companies view AI as a way to help compete in a time of economic uncertainty and changing technology. They cite AI as both their primary challenge and opportunity for driving growth and efficiency.

Autonomous agents, leaders say, will soon be indispensable, enabling consumer goods companies to enhance revenue growth, aid employees with creative work, and drive sales via personalized promotions to customers.

2025 is proving to be one of the toughest years for consumer goods companies, according to Salesforce’s new Consumer Goods Industry Insights Report. Weak consumer confidence, increasingly complex routes to market, softening returns from traditional revenue boosting strategies, and macroeconomic changes all threaten to squeeze margins. Perhaps unsurprisingly, more than half of consumer goods (CG) leaders (54%) say profitable growth will be tougher to achieve this year.

In response, leaders are betting big on AI. Nearly 9 in 10 believe AI agents — a type of AI that can act autonomously without human oversight — will be essential to compete within two years, and 88% expect them to directly boost sales.