2026 POI Spring Summit Chicago

POI Chicago conference

CPG Industry Panel Session

Building the Agentic Foundation for CPG Revenue Management

Watch the recording of our live panel session with General Mills, Altria, and Bel Group now.

Three years into widespread AI adoption, many CPG companies have moved past experimentation. As a result, the real challenge now is clear: moving from isolated AI insights to governed, automated execution. One that delivers consistent value across TPM, TPO, RGM, and retail execution.

 

Our panel brought together senior CPG leaders and XTEL experts to discuss:

 
  • In particular, where AI creates the most immediate impact. This includes pre-event validation, spend leakage detection, scenario generation, and post-event learning loops
  • Furthermore, how to build practical guardrails: approval thresholds, audit trails, and role-based controls
  • Finally, how teams are evolving into human orchestrators — steering, validating, and improving AI-driven decisions across end-to-end revenue management
 

Watch the entire panel session recording now.

Complete the form above to view the full content. Feel free to contact us if you’d like to discuss any of these topics in more detail.

Panelists:

 
  • Bridget Werderman, Manager, Sales Pricing Systems Product, Altria Group Distribution Company
  • Gaurav Yadav, Senior Director Digital and Technology, General Mills
  • Karine Bergeron, Global Director, Business and Commercial Growth Capabilities, Bel

Don’t miss our “Night on the Town” dinner event!

Join us for an evening of delicious food, beer, wine, and cocktails at Flight Club on the evening of Thursday, April 16 at 7:30PM – 10:00PM. Free transportation to and from our dinner event will be provided from the conference venue.

Located in the Loop and close to River North, Flight Club is an upscale entertainment concept combining elevated food and beverage menus with dynamic tech-enabled Social Darts®.

What is Social Darts®? Fast-paced multiplayer games, groundbreaking tracking technology, and instant scoring built to bring people together, whether you’re a rookie or a self-proclaimed pro!

There will be unlimited games available to participate in some fun and friendly competition with your colleagues. Don’t miss it!

On stage

Add these AI sessions to your POI Spring Summit agenda

Get the latest on agentic AI for CPG revenue management, with practical frameworks to move from AI-assisted insights to governed automation across forecasting, pricing, trade investment, and execution.

 
Pre‑Conference Workshop | April 15, 3:00 – 5:00 PM

Breaking through AI Fatigue: A Hands-on Approach to Building a Results-driven Agentic Operating Model with Teams, and your Revenue Management Platform

Together, Attendees in this workshop will move past AI features and learn what it takes to operationalize AI as an agentic operating model inside your Revenue Management ecosystem.

In many CPG organizations, AI is still experienced as point automation—isolated features that streamline single software tasks (flagging, classifying, suggesting) for a single process or team. Useful, yes—but not holistic. And always one step away from adoption failure. When AI is connected across forecasting, pricing, trade investment, and execution, it not only delivers incremental efficiency but also creates a step-change value.

In this hands-on workshop, we’ll map where AI already lives in your enterprise revenue management stack—forecasting, elasticity/price modeling, anomaly detection, and accrual checks—and identify what is typically preventing real impact. Through agentic frameworks and live use cases, we’ll design workflows based on Observe → Recommend → Execute, with clear guardrails, approvals, and auditability, and explore how teams evolve into human orchestrators who steer and validate AI-driven decisions.

What you’ll leave with:
– A draft Observe–Recommend–Execute workflow for a priority RM use case
– A short governance checklist (controls, escalation, accountability)
– Clarity on role shifts and ways of working to scale responsibly

Speakers: Andrew McKairnes, Eric Bickel, and Ben Peart from XTEL

 
Panel Session | April 16, 11:30 AM

From assisted to automated Growth: Building the agentic foundation for the next era of CPG Revenue Management

Three years into widespread business adoption of AI, many CPG companies have accumulated real experience embedding AI across TPM, TPO, RGM, and retail execution. The next challenge isn’t adding more individual models, it’s learning what to replicate, what to avoid, and how to move from isolated, AI-infused insights to governed, automated execution that consistently delivers value.

XTEL and leading CPG panelists will discuss where AI can create the most immediate impact across pre-event validation, spend leakage detection, scenario generation, and post-event learning loops. The panel will also explore the foundations required to scale responsibly: establishing practical guardrails (approval thresholds, audit trails, role-based controls) and evolving teams into human orchestrators who steer, validate, and continuously improve AI-driven decisions across the end-to-end revenue management

 

Presenters Include:

  • Bridget Werderman, Manager, Sales Pricing Systems Product, Altria Group Distribution Company
  • Gaurav Yadav, Senior Director Digital and Technology, General Mills
  • Karine Bergeron, Global Director, Business and Commercial Growth Capabilities, Bel

Moderated by:

  • Ben Peart, Director Sales, NA, XTEL