How brand owners can game AI to secure consumers’ beverage of choice – Comment
AI optimization strategies for beverage brand discovery represent a critical tech trend as voice assistants and AI shopping tools reshape consumer purchase behavior.
Why does this matter?
AI optimization strategies for beverage brand discovery represent a critical tech trend as voice assistants and AI shopping tools reshape consumer purchase behavior.
Highlights
The drinks industry has spent decades trying to influence one decision-maker: the consumer. Brands have fought for eye-level shelf space, memorable advertising and cultural relevance, because the path to purchase was relatively predictable. Consumers discovered products through advertising, recommendations from friends, supermarket shelves or a bartender’s suggestion. But AI is beginning to change all of that. This isn't because AI is replacing the consumer, but because it is increasingly shaping the decisions the consumer makes before they ever reach the shelf. According to EY’s '2026 Consumer Beverage Survey', 27% of consumers have already used AI to recommend a drinks product based on goals such as hydration, energy or reducing sugar. Among Gen Z, that figure almost doubles to 48%, while 43% of all consumers say they expect to use AI for beverage recommendations over the next year. This matters because recommendation has always been one of marketing’s most valuable assets. Historically, those recommendations have come from friends, retailers, bartenders or critics. Increasingly, however, it may come from ChatGPT or Claude or Gemini - or even the AI assistant built into your supermarket app. This isn’t just happening in drinks. NIQ recently reported that 42% of consumers now use AI tools to help them shop. Rather than scrolling through endless search results, people are asking AI to compare products, explain ingredients, identify the best value and narrow down choices before they even visit a retailer. The 'art' of shopping, then, is beginning to shift from search to recommendation, with AI becoming a new layer in the consumer decision-making process. To see what this looks like in practice, I asked ChatGPT a simple question: “What’s the best non-alcoholic beer?” The response didn’t present an endless list of options. Instead, it confidently recommended Lucky Saint Unfiltered Lager, describing the SKU as the benchmark for alcohol-free lager thanks to its crisp taste, full body and ability to closely replicate a traditional beer. Whether or not you agree with the recommendation isn’t really the point. The point is that millions of consumers are beginning to ask AI these kinds of questions before they ever step into a shop. For beverage brands, this creates a fascinating tension. Drinks have always been emotional purchases. Many consumers choose Guinness because of the pouring ritual. Others buy Aperol because of the lifestyle it represents. They reach for Coca-Cola because of decades of emotional memory. These decisions aren’t driven purely by rational comparisons; they’re shaped by habit, identity and culture. AI, however, is inherently rational. Ask an AI assistant to recommend a drink, and it's more likely to weigh up ingredients, sugar content, functional benefits, reviews and value than nostalgia or cultural symbolism. That doesn’t mean brands become less important. It means they need to ensure that both humans and algorithms understand exactly why they should be chosen. The winners in this new environment are likely to be brands that combine distinctive emotional positioning with exceptional information quality. Take Lucky Saint, for example. The alcohol-free beer brand has built its reputation around a simple, consistent promise: premium taste without compromise. Years of positive reviews, consistent messaging and a clearly articulated proposition make it easy for the consumer to understand - and increasingly easy for AI systems to recommend. In a world where more purchase journeys begin with a prompt, clarity becomes a competitive advantage. Even The Coca-Cola Co appears to recognise that the future of recommendation depends on transparency as much as awareness. In August, the company joined other major beverage manufacturers in rolling out QR codes across packaging that provide the consumer with immediate access to detailed ingredient explanations and product information. In a world where AI increasingly rewards structured, trustworthy information, making that data easier to access could become a competitive advantage rather than simply a compliance exercise. EY argues that brands should now think beyond traditional SEO and prepare for what many are calling ‘LLM (large language models) optimisation’ - ensuring product claims, ingredients, nutritional information and brand messaging are structured in ways that AI systems can confidently interpret and recommend. Just as brands spent the past two decades learning how to rank on Google and win over the bartender, they may soon need to think about how they rank in AI-generated answers. That doesn’t mean the supermarket shelf disappears. Far from it. The physical shelf still closes the sale. But increasingly, the shortlist may already have been written before consumers arrive. Instead of browsing 30 different soft drinks or beers, shoppers may simply ask: “Recommend a low-sugar drink for an afternoon meeting.” Head here for more alcohol marketing commentary from Chris Tyas The post How brand owners can game AI to secure consumers’ beverage of choice – Comment appeared first on Global Drinks Intel.
Source: Drinks Intel