Report Bain & Company

With Ai +20% productivity for Italian food & beverage companies

Value chains will be rewritten to be autonomous, predictive and synchronised. Man will be in charge of supervision, innovation and ethical governance

by Enrico Netti

31 August 2025

4' min read

Key points

So in the medium term
A look at 2035

4' min read

A productivity increase of 100,000 workers. This is what the arrival of Ai will bring among Italian food & beverage companies, and more generally those in the FMCG sector, within a decade. This despite a certain delay in the adoption and implementation of artificial intelligence compared to other sectors. This is according to the analysis 'Food & beverage workforce explorer' carried out by Bain & Company, on this sector employing about 500 thousand people. The study reveals the transformative potential of technology on the sector: thanks to automation and agenticAi, the productivity of Italian companies in this sector can take off, freeing up to 20% of resources to be reinvested in high value-added activities.

The industry is currently facing the challenge of integrating Ai into processes in a structured manner, transforming it into a genuine driver of competitive advantage and value creation. "After more than two years of experimentation," reports Duilio Matrullo, Partner at Bain & Company, "less than 20% of companies have managed to significantly scale up their investments in Ai.

"This is an incredible opportunity for those driving FMCG companies. In particular, the adoption of Ai, Agentic Ai tools and automation,' adds Marco Caldarelli, Senior Partner at Bain & Company, 'can lead to a productivity increase of around 20%. This efficiency improvement would be equivalent to the work done by about 100,000 employees. To grasp it, in part or in full, will require awareness, will and courage to rewrite a new business equation and carry out a profound redesign of processes. These technologies can then provide a real boost to the efficiency and competitiveness of the entire industry. The challenge and, at the same time, the opportunity will be represented by the development of new technological skills in the company, so that human resources can be reallocated to the management and orchestration of the human-machine relationship, with a view to collaborative intelligence'.

So in the medium term

In the medium term, the impact of technologies such as Agentic Ai and automation, in particular collaborative robots, will no longer be limited to operationally supporting businesses, but will be able to radically revolutionise every function along the value chain. The business functions most affected by this transformation will be purchasing, production, marketing, sales, customer service and finance, where automation and the use of algorithms will enable the replacement of repetitive and standardised tasks. Conversely, areas with greater strategic value - such as research & development, technology and strategic management - will tend to increase in relevance. "In the next 10 years, the impact will be even more significant: consumer goods companies that redesign their business model by putting artificial intelligence at the centre will be able to achieve productivity gains of more than 50 per cent," Matrullo emphasises. "In the face of growing competition and new standards imposed by digital players, adopting these technologies is no longer an option, but a strategic imperative. This transformation marks the end of the industry's traditional operating model and the dawn of a new paradigm: more agile, natively digital, algorithm-driven, human in intentions and essential in execution'.

The outlook is for another industrial revolution with tomorrow, smart factories equipped with real-time analytics to optimise production; significant investments in AI-driven content marketing and media planning; and GenAI solutions used for the development of personalised consumer offers. These technologies are revolutionising the industry: improving forecast accuracy, accelerating innovation cycles and enhancing the consumer experience.

A look at 2035

Bain & Company report traces the progress that will be made in 10 years' time. In 2035, the FMCG landscape will be reorganised around technology platforms, robotics and intelligent agents as consumers will no longer interact directly with brands through traditional retail, online or advertising channels but will be Ai agents managing the discovery and purchasing process. Thus user-consumers will entrust or delegate purchasing decisions to virtual assistants that manage automatic product reordering, budget management and purchasing choices on criteria of price, quality, sustainability. For advertising and marketing activities, communication will be between algorithms, between machines, according to well-defined parameters. Value chains will become completely autonomous, predictive and synchronised, thanks to the convergence of Ai and advanced robotics. Innovation will also experience an unprecedented acceleration, driven by AI-assisted R&D, with simulations through the use of Ai-generated virtual consumer panels that will drastically reduce development time and costs, while fostering a strong customisation of the offer.

It will be a revolution between models and parameters and it will be the ability of a product to emerge in digital contexts driven by artificial intelligence that will make the difference. Vertical integration will give way to open and collaborative platforms, where value will be generated through interconnections and co-creation between different players in the ecosystem. Production activities will be increasingly entrusted to synthetic execution: automation, predictive models and intelligent agents will take the place of manual activities, revolutionising time, costs and modes of operation. So the skills required will change: supervising robotic systems, analysing data, integrating Ai solutions will be the new priorities. Centralised functions will be replaced by modular Ai-based services, while human roles will focus on supervision, innovation and ethical governance. Performance metrics will also be transformed: from static indicators to dynamic real-time measurements, such as supply chain efficiency and flexibility or consumer sentiment measured through advanced language models.

The success of a brand will no longer depend only on visibility and advertising, but on how often it is selected by intelligent agents. It will therefore be essential to make the brand's value proposition understandable not only to humans, but also to automated systems. "Companies in the industry will increasingly invest in technology platforms, digital experiences and supervision of artificial intelligence systems, thus redefining internal organisation and enhancing agility, critical thinking and strategic vision," conclude Caldarelli and Matrullo.

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