Scrappy AI Playbook for Consumer Brands

AI Tools for CPG Brands: Scrappy Playbook for Consumer Brands

1. Clean & Analyze Ops Data

Tool: ChatGPT or Claude

Upload any type of data, like PDFs, email, text and photos, onto ChatGPT. You can upload order logs, packing lists, and inventory spreadsheets. Then, ask ChatGPT to identify key information, missing fields, anomalies or trends. AI tools are also effective in analyzing customer data and historical sales data to gain insights into consumer behaviors and trends. This way, you can speed up processes, help you gain more clarity on data and uncover actionable insights in a matter of seconds.

In this example, we asked ChatGPT to pull purchase order information.

Note that the information AI pulls is often not accurate due to unstructured data, but this serves as a good starting point and speeds up your work. For accurate data processing, check out Buddy for order automation.

2. Operations Checklist Generator

Tool: ChatGPT or Claude

There are always new or less-than-ideal processes brand operators have to work on. AI can enhance various business functions such as planning, logistics, and production scheduling, ensuring your operations are efficient and competitive. For example, you can use AI to create checklists or optimize your process for a pop-up event and an order fulfillment process for specific distributors or retailers.

In this example, we asked ChatGPT to “create a checklist for frozen food DTC delivery in the summer”.

Pro Tips: Prompt AI with as much detail as possible so it can cater its advice to your business’s needs. It helps to tell AI to become an expert in a specific field.

3. Route Optimization

Tool: OpenRouteService (open source) + ChatGPT

In the early days of direct store delivery (DSD) and buyer pitching, optimizing your route can save you a significant amount of time. You can use AI to optimize route planning by translating data into natural language.

In this example, we asked ChatGPT to create a step-by-step guide on “how to leverage AI to interpret the optimized route sequence provided by OpenRouteService”.

4. Auto SOP + Training Docs

Tool: Notion AI or ChatGPT

Once you start to hire your first employee, having standard operating procedures (SOPs) for specific tasks is important for speed up employee onboarding and ensuring that nothing falls through the cracks.

You can use Notion to generate SOPs directly in Wiki and connect Tasks to SOPs by creating a relationship between your Wiki and Tasks database. It is great at summarizing and auto-formatting long documents and using AI tools to autofill templates (e.g. “Receiving Inventory” = fills out required steps, owners, tools used)

Meanwhile, ChatGPT is great at drafting highly tailored SOPs in seconds with the right prompt.

5. Rank Vendors with Scorecards

Tool: ChatGPT or Claude

As you evaluate dozens of suppliers, it’s challenging to summarize all the information. By uploading your vendor spreadsheet, AI tools can provide valuable insights by analyzing vendor data, like pricing, minimum order quantity (MOQ) and shipping cost, to inform smarter sourcing decisions. This way, you can make smarter sourcing decisions and compare vendors objectively.

In this example, we asked Claude to use our supplier data and rate them based on price, MOQ, shipping information, reliability, and lead times. I also told it to add any other areas that we should be aware of.

6. Email Wholesale Purchase Orders

Tool: Buddy, Zapier, Make.com

AI excels at handling inconsistent data. For example, your wholesale customer might name your product differently than what’s in your system. Tools like Buddy, Zapier, Make.com can automatically parse incoming POs, extract key information (e.g. product names, quantities, delivery dates), and route them directly into your PO tracker. This way, you can eliminate manual entry errors and accelerate order processing.

In this example, we used Buddy to automate a purchase order - speeding up wholesale order processing up to 70% faster than usual.

7. Internal Document Search

Tools: Perplexity or ChatGPT

Upload your internal documents, like your SOPs, contracts and vendor agreements, into AI tools like ChatGPT or Perplexity. These tools utilize natural language processing (NLP) and machine learning to understand the context and intent behind your queries, so they can provide highly relevant and accurate answers directly from your document library.

In this example, you can find this “2025 UNFI agreement Q&A” GPT in ChatGPT’s library. If you upgrade to ChatGPT Plus, you can create a custom agent that can answer any questions you have about documents you upload, saving time and reducing back-and-forth communication.