Q&A: Nielsen IQ on what happens when AI is quietly shaping what your shoppers buy?

Every food brand has spent years trying to win over the person standing in the aisle. But more and more of what those shoppers see, consider and reach for is being shaped by AI assistants working quietly in the background. The shopper still chooses, but AI increasingly decides what makes it in front of them.

The catch is that these assistants can only recommend what they can actually read and understand. If your product data is thin or messy, you can have a genuinely great product and still never make the shortlist. Most brands haven't caught up to this yet.

It's the shift Pierre-Marc Denault, Commercial Lead for NPI Canada at NielsenIQ, is bringing to Future Food-Tech London 2026, and it changes what "innovation" is really supposed to deliver.

The problem isn't innovation. It's adoption.

Ask Pierre-Marc what he's most focused on and he doesn't start with new products. He starts with what happens after they launch.

"The challenge we're most focused on is helping food-tech innovators convert innovation into consumer adoption."

It sounds obvious until you sit with how many launches don't clear that bar. The industry is very good at making new things. It is far less good at making new things that scale. Which leads to the mindset shift Pierre-Marc thinks the whole sector needs:

"The mindset shift I believe leaders need to adopt is moving from simply creating innovation to creating adoption. Success won't be defined by launching new products, but by understanding what consumers truly value and bringing those innovations to market at scale."

The part most brands haven't understood yet

Here's where it gets uncomfortable. There's now a second audience for every product, and it isn't human.

"We're also helping clients prepare for the rise of agentic commerce, where AI assistants will increasingly influence purchase decisions. That means ensuring both the product and the underlying product data are AI-ready, with rich, well-structured attributes that improve visibility, recommendation, and selection in AI-driven shopping environments."

Put plainly: if an AI assistant can't read, understand and trust your product's data, it won't recommend it. The product could be excellent and still be invisible at the moment of choice.

"As AI-powered shopping assistants become more influential, having accurate, structured, and well-tagged product data will be critical. We're helping clients ensure their products are not only consumer-ready, but also AI-ready, increasing their chances of being discovered, recommended, and ultimately chosen in future shopping environments."

Turning data into a decision advantage

This is where NielsenIQ's answer comes in, a solution built for exactly this moment.

"I'm particularly excited to talk about our new solution, NPI (NielsenIQ Product Insights). NPI uses AI to code and enrich product attributes at scale and combines that intelligence with NielsenIQ's measurement data to uncover emerging trends and understand what's driving growth across categories."

The value isn't just tidier data. It's using that data to make sharper calls earlier, on formulation, on development, on where a category is actually heading, while also getting products ready for the AI-mediated shelf to come.

Collaboration, but not for its own sake

Pierre-Marc is blunt about where the sector's collaboration energy should go, and it's a pointed line for an industry that loves a launch.

"The industry doesn't need more innovation for innovation's sake. It needs innovation that can scale."

The partnerships that matter, he argues, bring innovators, manufacturers, retailers and data partners around a shared understanding of what consumers actually value and, increasingly, around shared product intelligence.

"As AI and agentic commerce reshape how products are discovered and chosen, collaboration around product data and product intelligence will be just as important as collaboration around product development."

The convergence that changes everything

Look out five to ten years and Pierre-Marc sees two forces colliding, and the brands ready for both winning.

"The biggest transformation will come from the convergence of AI-powered innovation and agentic commerce. Companies will be able to develop products faster and more effectively, while AI assistants increasingly influence what consumers discover and buy."

Faster, smarter development on one side. A new AI gatekeeper at the point of purchase on the other. The work now is being ready for both at once.

Meet NielsenIQ in London

This is exactly the conversation Future Food-Tech London 2026 exists to have, the leaders building the next generation of food, in a room with the people and platforms shaping how it gets discovered and chosen. Pierre-Marc and the NielsenIQ team will be part of that conversation throughout the event.

If your products are consumer-ready but not yet AI-ready, this is the room where you start closing the gap.

Future Food-Tech London is next month. Book your pass now to join Pierre-Marc, the NielsenIQ team, and global food-tech leaders, investors and innovators in London.

👉 Register now to secure your place.