Elli Peterson's TechCrunch

Three years ago, our category management team faced a crisis that would fundamentally reshape how we approached technology infrastructure. We had just completed our most ambitious promotional calendar yet—coordinating trade promotions across 47 retail partners, optimizing shelf space allocation for 230 SKUs, and managing markdown strategies that touched every major channel. The systems buckled under the computational load. Our on-premise servers couldn't handle the real-time demand forecasting models we needed, and our promotional performance analysis reports arrived three days late, rendering them useless for in-flight optimization. That failure taught us our first lesson: in modern CPG operations, infrastructure isn't just a back-office concern—it's the foundation of competitive advantage. The journey that followed transformed not just our technology stack but our entire approach to trade promotion planning and execution. Implementing AI Cloud Infrastructure wasn't s...

In the consumer packaged goods industry, the ability to analyze scan data from thousands of retail locations and adjust trade promotion strategies in real time has become a competitive necessity. Behind every optimized promotional lift calculation and every refined category management decision lies a complex technological foundation that most practitioners never see. The infrastructure enabling these capabilities represents a fundamental shift in how CPG enterprises process information, allocate trade funds, and respond to market dynamics. Understanding the mechanics of AI Cloud Infrastructure reveals why organizations like Procter & Gamble and Unilever have been able to transform their trade promotion management from quarterly planning cycles to dynamic, data-driven operations. This infrastructure doesn't simply store data or run calculations faster—it fundamentally changes what becomes possible in promotional budget planning, retailer collaboration planning, and merchandisin...