Brand Owners Are Embracing Digital and AI in Packaging

Brand owners are already using a wide range of digital tools and artificial intelligence (AI) use cases across the packaging value chain, and they plan to significantly increase their usage over the next three years as they view the impact of these technologies to be overwhelmingly positive. Their use of digital tools is highest in traceability features and business-to-business (B2B) customer portals, while AI adoption is most prevalent in product development and procurement/sourcing.

That’s according to L.E.K. Consulting’s proprietary eighth annual U.S. Brand Owner Packaging study, for which we surveyed 450 U.S. brand managers and packaging stakeholders in the fourth quarter of 2025 and the first quarter of 2026.

Brand owners think most digital tools have a positive impact

Brand owners currently leverage a number of digital tools across the packaging value chain. Categories range from traceability features that provide end-to-end visibility into material sourcing, production and distribution history to software that enables rapid virtual design, testing and iteration of packaging concepts prior to physical prototyping (see Figure 1).

Brand owner awareness is highest for traceability features (85% of respondents) and B2B customer portals (81%) (see Figure 2). Awareness of digital tools is meaningfully higher among consumer packaged goods (CPGs) than it is among foodservice operators, according to the respondent feedback. 

Those are also the most widely used, at approximately 73% and 79%, respectively, figures that are forecast to rise to roughly 92% and 94%, respectively, over the next three years. Meanwhile, some 45% of brand owners have already implemented smart, connected packaging and 46% are using digital prototyping software — and by 2028, those numbers are predicted to almost double, to approximately 88% and 89%, respectively. Indeed, at least 74% of respondents believe that each of the digital tools they use has a positive impact on the packaging value chain (see Figure 3).

When it comes to AI use cases, product development (around 84%) and procurement/sourcing (around 82%) are the most commonly known and have the highest adoption rates (approximately 74% and 69%, respectively). But brand owners intend to expand their use of AI even further over the next three years, especially in customer-focused marketing, which they plan to take from around 52% to 88%, and product performance monitoring, which they plan to increase from around 57% to 90% (see Figure 4).

The brand owners we surveyed expect that AI will deliver a broadly positive impact across the packaging value chain going forward (see Figure 5). 

Meanwhile, leading brand owners are increasingly investing in innovative digital tools and AI use cases that enhance packaging and product branding. In 2025, for example, Nestlé R&D together with IBM Research created a generative AI tool that can identify novel high-barrier packaging materials, and Unilever said that it was leveraging real-time, physically accurate 3D technology to create digital twins of its products, each of which “contains all its variants, labels, packaging and language formats within a single file.” 

For more deep dives from our four-part series, don’t miss our look at how foodservice brands are approaching packaging and how that differs from CPG brands, our summary of how brand owners’ sourcing strategies are evolving, and our report on how packaging is impacting brands’ success.

If you would like access to the full study results, please contact us.

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