AI for Consumer Packaged Goods

Every CPG company is investing in AI. Most are stuck in pilot mode.

LinkageLabs.ai helps consumer packaged goods brands move from experimentation to enterprise impact — with hands-on training, strategic consulting, and executive peer groups built for how your industry actually operates.

Practical playbooks for consumer insights, content, competitive analysis, e-commerce, and product innovation.

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75%
of companies are adopting AI — but only 35% of their people have received any training
Workera / IDC AI Skills Gap Report, 2025
<6%
have scaled AI with measurable business impact
McKinsey State of AI, 2025
13%
of CPG leaders report widespread use or full workflow integration in marketing
BCG, 2025

Most CPG teams have the ambition. What they lack is the training, the structure, and the system to move from scattered adoption to real implementation. They don't need another AI demo — they need workflows that run inside their actual business, this quarter.

What We Do

An implementation platform, peer network, and consulting practice purpose-built for CPG.

Practical playbooks for consumer insights, content, competitive analysis, e-commerce, and product innovation.

Platform

Humans + Agents AI Adoption Platform

A complete operating system for moving your organization from Level 1 to Level 3 AI adoption and beyond. Self-guided video training, 1,200+ pre-built workflows, and a work tracker that shows exactly where your team is using AI — and where they're stuck.

  • 1,200+ pre-built AI workflows for CPG functions
  • Self-guided video training library
  • Work tracker with real-time adoption visibility
  • Enterprise intelligence on team-wide progress
Book a discovery call
Peer Groups

CPG AI Executive Roundtables

Quarterly peer groups where CPG leaders work on real AI implementation challenges together. Non-competing businesses, practitioner-focused, action-oriented. You arrive with problems. You leave with solutions running.

  • 8–12 leaders per cohort, VP and C-suite
  • Application or invitation required
  • Facilitated working sessions, not panels
  • Leave with workflows you can deploy immediately
Apply for next cohort
Consulting

AI Strategy & Implementation

Custom engagements built around your functions, your categories, and your operating reality. We work inside the Humans + Agents platform alongside your team — we see where bottlenecks are happening and step in to get people unstuck.

  • AI readiness assessment
  • Hands-on workflow design & implementation
  • Live bottleneck identification via platform data
  • On-site workshops & ongoing advisory
Book a discovery call
Michele DeKinder-Smith
Who's Behind This

Michele DeKinder-Smith

Founder, Linkage Labs & Linkage Research

I've spent 28 years working with consumer brands — driving insights, building strategy, and turning data into decisions from the shelf to the boardroom. That's the foundation of everything we do at Linkage Labs.

Through Linkage Research & Consulting, my team and I have served CPG companies from mid-market challengers to Fortune 500 enterprises across qualitative research, market segmentation, shopper insights, and strategic consulting. Many of those relationships are 10–20 years deep.

I built Linkage Labs because the brands I've worked with for decades are now facing the same question: how do we actually operationalize AI? Not in theory. In the workflows their teams use every day. I'm not a technologist parachuting into CPG. I've lived here for nearly three decades.

Behind every engagement is a team — AI users, AI agent builders, AI strategists, and implementation specialists who bring the same consumer-industry depth. When you work with Linkage Labs, you get a partner who stays in the work with you.

28

Years in consumer industries

F500

To mid-market clients served

7+

Team members, Chicago-based

Who This Is For

Built for CPG leaders and teams ready to move from scattered adoption to a real system.

Marketing & Brand

Move from one-off prompt experiments and siloed efforts to integrated AI workflows for content, insights synthesis, and campaign optimization.

Supply Chain & Ops

Replace fragmented tool adoption with structured AI workflows for demand forecasting, inventory, and logistics.

Insights & Analytics

End scattered individual experimentation. Build consistent AI-assisted analysis, trend detection, and evidence-based decision-making.

Innovation & R&D

Get cross-team alignment on AI tools and methods. Accelerate pipeline development, concept testing, and go-to-market.

Enterprise Leadership

Build an AI strategy that connects to business outcomes. Gain visibility into adoption across functions and drive accountability at scale.

The CPG leaders who operationalize AI now will define the next decade.

Whether you're starting with training, exploring peer groups, or ready for a full consulting partnership — let's talk about where you are and what makes sense.

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