Short recap of Analytics Unite 2025 and what to expect in 2026

TL;DR: Humans remain the "core drivers" of AI success, requiring "unicorn personalities" who possess both technical skills and industry-specific change management expertise. As Gold Sponsors at Analytics Unite 2026, Polestar Analytics is looking forward to dive deeper into AI in RGM and how we’re shifting tides with Profit Pulse AI, our Gartner featured Revenue Growth Management Solution for Consumer Goods.

The 2025 theme, "Integrating Impact," forced a shift in perspective from theoretical AI pilots toward operationalized business value. There were experts from Mars, Haleon, Kraft Heinz, Kellanova, and more talking about how they’re now prioritizing breaking down silos to ensure data investments translated into bottom-line results.

What Are the Main Takeaways From Analytics Unite 2025?

Progress often begins by looking back — not to repeat, but to refine. As the dust settles on 2025, and you’re building the CPG AI strategy for 2026, it is time to revisit the five counterintuitive truths of Analytics Unite 2025:

• The “Individual” Imperative: Forrester’s Brendan Witcher made a compelling case that treating customer data as one big puzzle of segments is outdated. Winning brands like Sephora are proving that offering tangible value in exchange for identification — turning anonymous visitors into known individuals — is the real game changer.


• The ROI Formula: Ashwin Mittal of C5i reframed how we think about success: Business Impact = Problem × Data + Tech × Talent ^ Execution. Identifying the right problem, he argued, is the most important variable. Even the best technology can’t solve the wrong challenge. The "Talent ^ Execution" component serves as a non-linear multiplier, meaning superior tech fails without disciplined change management.


• The “Teens” Paradox: As Mars Snacking put it, AI is still in its teenage years. It’s growing fast — sometimes recklessly — and still needs human judgment to guide its ethics, accuracy, and strategic direction.


• The “Phantom Inventory” Fix: Haleon and Trax tackled the long-standing out-of-stock issue by teaming up on image recognition. Their results — up to a 30% boost in shelf efficiency — proved that real-time transparency is the only cure for phantom inventory.


• The Cultural Bottleneck: Kraft Heinz reminded us that before AI fails technically, it often fails culturally. Their “Data and Ethics Council” addressed this by treating governance as a shared responsibility, ensuring the company moves fast and responsibly.

These lessons don’t just reflect 2025; they form the foundation for 2026’s Agentic Shift. Without getting data and culture right, no level of automation can scale effectively.

Other Key areas discussed:

• AI ROI and how to formalize it:

Harish Rao of Costco mandates a formal structure to safeguard ROI, ensuring technological "bells and whistles" do not distract from business value. He assesses investments through a dual lens of top-line demand forecasting and bottom-line labor savings.

Costco’s framework requires leaders to balance tactical execution with a consistent commitment to the company's long-term vision. ROI remains the non-negotiable driver of every analytics initiative.

• Shift in consumer understanding from aggregates to individuals

Brendan Witcher of Forrester challenged leaders to stop treating consumers like "Rubik’s Cubes" by testing random tactics until something clicks. He mandated that brands solve specific consumer pain points before attempting to delight them.

Retailers must stop forcing consumers to "shop" and instead use high-quality data to make it easy for them to buy. The future of transformation lies in individualized understanding rather than aggregated assumptions.

• Risk of data silos in mergers

Bhaumik Sharma of Haleon detailed how unifying POS, ERP, and inventory data into centralized hubs overcomes the fragmentation of M&A history. This single source of truth allows leaders to act on insights rather than debating data quality.

This strategic data consolidation propelled Haleon from the retailer’s No. 4 supplier in 2022 to No. 2. Clear data infrastructure is the prerequisite for improving supplier rankings and promotional efficiency.

• What role does governance play in scaling AI?

Pat Nestor of Kraft Heinz established an AI Data and Ethics Council to scale their "KHAI" generative AI tool safely. Treating AI initiatives like product life cycles with clear value targets prevents "chatbot chaos."

Starting small with rigorous oversight builds the executive support necessary to create reinvestment momentum. Governance is the essential framework that transforms experimental pilots into enterprise-wide standards.

The Baseline for 2026 The 2025 proceedings revealed that transformational solutions are never built in silos. These insights addressed the "communication gap" between business and technical teams, creating the data foundation required for the 2026 agenda.

What will define Analytics Unite 2026?

In 2025, analytics primarily looked backward — forecasting demand based on what had already happened. Analytics Unite 2026 agenda, led by leaders like Reckitt’s Varun Kakaria, is all about smart execution: putting AI-powered insights to work in real time, right where action happens. It is also about how Agentic AI for CPG and Retail is taking the world by a storm.

With the theme as “Redefining the Possible”, the idea is that growth is no longer a straight line; it belongs to teams that can adapt, automate, and still keep people at the center of progress.

For CPG and retail leaders, this isn’t a generic analytics show-and-tell; it’s about how to run the business differently. You’ll see how peers are:

• Turning analytics from reporting into always‑on decision engines in merchandising, supply chain, revenue growth, and CX.


• Redesigning org structures, incentives, and governance so human + AI workflows actually stick back in the business — not just in pilots.

If you want the answers to how is AI transforming Revenue Growth Management?

Meet Polestar Analytics at Analytics Unite 2026

Specializing in CPG, Polestar Analytics helps deliver solutions for volatile demand, omnichannel marketing, and trade promotion ROI using causal AI, MMM, pricing optimization, supply chain control towers, and strong data governance. As Gold sponsors at Analytics unite 2026, we’re unveiling our cutting-edge CPG and Retail solutions. With solutions like Profit pulse AI, we offer you an Agentic AI Platform for Revenue growth management with features like:

• Agentic decisioning: Agents that produce outcomes with Promo Calendar, Scenario Builders, and Recommendation Engines and high-ROI playbooks


• Micro-Geography Targeting: Outlet-level product recommendations based on forecasts, trends, and seasonal drivers


• Unified with P&L planning: Built on a unified, multi-layered AI engine that consolidates fragmented revenue, cost-to-serve, and margin data into a single profitability view


• Native Integrations with Azure Databricks and Anaplan for end-to-end data orchestration