This year’s Word of the Year from Dictionary.com is “6-7.” If you just said it in your head, then there’s no reason to explain it. If you didn’t say it in your head, do yourself a favor and don’t go looking for an explanation. How two words—or numbers, really—can be the “word” of the year, doesn’t make much sense. But the real word of the year has probably been overdone, and it could arguably be called the word of the decade to this point: uncertainty. In 2024 it was driven by the presidential elections, so a number of companies took a “wait and see” approach regarding some major financial decisions. This year, it was tariffs that gave companies pause. Will 2026 bring more of the same, or will a new word come to define the second half of the decade? ProFood World will take a look at the factors that could have a major impact on food and beverage manufacturing, as well as get insights from people around the industry.
The AI bubble will burst
Don’t mistake the use of AI here for AI that’s related to finding product defects or detecting machinery that’s not operating optimally. Instead, think about the systems that are being used as customer service reps in place of humans. The problem, according to economists and people who monitor the financial sector, is that AI is essentially propping up the U.S. economy—but the way it’s doing so looks a lot like an economic bubble.
Right now, the businesses involved in creating AI—chip makers, developers, and other tech companies—are making investments in one another. The marketplace typically works in a straight line, like food production: supplier to consumer. What the companies involved with AI are doing looks an awful lot like a circle with no end user, per se. If there is no end user, then these companies are essentially investing in one another to boost stocks.
Right now, you’re wondering, “What does this have to do with food manufacturing?”
The ability to harness production data effectively can lead to smarter decision-making, improved processes and a competitive edge. Analyzing historical data allows operations management to identify patterns, trends and anomalies that may otherwise go unnoticed.SmartSights
Well, the U.S. economy is very much tied to Wall Street. Wall Street is currently being boosted by stocks in AI-related tech. Studies are showing that businesses that have bought AI products (i.e., consumers) are, for various reasons, not getting the ROI that they expected. If that is truly the case and no businesses buy AI products, that causes a loss in confidence in these AI companies, their stocks fall, and the pole that’s been propping up a lot of the U.S. economy falls.
It's true that people have been predicting a recession for a few years now with the other shoe yet to drop, mostly because consumers continue to spend. That’s less likely to continue if stocks slip and major employers start letting people go.
People will still need to eat
As of this writing, the Supreme Court has yet to decide on the legality of the current presidential administration’s ability to impose tariffs. Regardless of the outcome of that case, we’re predicting that tariffs will be reduced, mostly due to the potential for an economic downturn outlined above.
By incorporating real-time data collection software and automatically tagging downtime, Cincinnati-based G&J Pepsi is taking analytics to a new level and has reduced engineering time by 70%.G&J Pepsi
Costs are high for most goods, but food is a basic necessity that consumers must be able to afford. It’s for that reason we think that tariffs will be reduced anyway to help manufacturers keep prices from rising. The high cost of food was one of the platforms that was used to win the election, after all.
However, tariffs aren’t the only impediment to lowering costs. “Significant labor and skills gap issues, lingering supply chain challenges, and the current economic uncertainty can be daunting,” says Cody Bann, Vice President of Engineering with industrial software company SmartSights. “To address these issues, we are reiterating to our manufacturing clients the tremendous benefits of how upgraded technology will increase efficiencies, improve quality control, and create a more attractive working environment to help retain younger workers.”
Investments in automation picks up
Immigration was another platform that was used to win last year’s election, but we don’t think there will’ll be backtracking on that front anytime soon. It’s definitely had an impact on an already shrinking workforce, and food and beverage manufacturers have had to turn to automation to keep up with production.
Adoption has at times seemed slow because of one particular barrier. “The reality for most organizations is that they are a long way from minimizing human presence onsite,” says Bann. “Today, only around 10% of manufacturers have extensively digitized operations, and it will take many years before these efforts are accurately characterized as widespread. The most significant reason for this is high upfront costs—the investment cost for robotics, sensors, integration, and infrastructure is significant even for new facilities; it's even more expensive to retrofit existing operations.”
Packaging World 2025 Annual Outlook Report: Automation & Robotics
However, with many people in the U.S. choosing something other than manufacturing as their employment and immigration policies creating a hesitancy among the people willing to work in manufacturing, putting resources into automating plants remains the best, or only, option. About two thirds of CPG respondents planned to add automation to their operations in 2025, mainly motivated by a mixture of labor challenges, efficiency gains, and safety, according to Packaging World’s 2025 Annual Outlook Report on automation and robotics in packaging.
Don’t expect the automation to include humanoid robots walking around the plant like a person would. As reported earlier this year in the Humanoid Robots in Packaging and Processing: 2025 Status Report, they’re still many years away and will be cost prohibitive for most at the outset, anyway. Instead, we’re talking about the usual suspects such as end-of-line packaging or meal assembly where actions are consistent, repetitive, and labor intensive. Humans generally don’t want to do that type of low-value work, and bringing in a machine allows those people to be reallocated to someplace more beneficial to them and the company.
A look at an early model of Boston Dynamics’ Atlas robot. This model uses hydraulics—that leak—but even all-electric robots still pose questions regarding food safety, which is part of the reason why they’re not quite ready for the plant floor.ProFood World
Leasing and RaaS rise
The cost of purchasing a new piece of equipment can be high, as mentioned earlier, which makes it difficult for small and mid-size companies to do so regardless of the benefits. But buying a machine outright isn’t always necessary.
“I think the reality is that all of us want to get into automation, but there are a lot of barriers in our head,” says Joel Onyshuk, VP of sales for equipment supplier Formic. “’Is it the right time? Do we have the right people? Do we have the capital to go do it?’—and that’s a big one.”
Leasing is a concept that’s been around for a long time, so there isn’t much need to get into the specifics of what exactly it is. Suffice to say, that smaller monthly payments can more easily be worked into the budget.
Robots-as-a-Service (RaaS) isn’t a brand-new idea, but it is newer. In this framework, robotics and other automated solutions from a variety of OEMs are rented to food and beverage manufacturers from a provider. This allows the end user to find the right fit for a particular use case with contracts that have an agreed term with varying timelines depending on the selected contract, but typically with a flat monthly rate.
“You can actually automate now versus later because all the constraints that are typically associated with automation, [such as] traditional capital purchase expenses, are now gone, and we can get into actually delivering on the outcomes that we need in our businesses,” says Onyshuk.
The big benefit here is that the provider will also install and maintain the equipment during that contract term. This can be beneficial to end users who no longer need to have someone on staff capable of repairing equipment that is getting increasingly more complex and requiring specialized training to fix. We think that the relative ease it offers end users who need automation but don’t necessarily have it in their budget to buy, will find this an attractive option moving forward.
Major recalls will drop
If 2024 reminded food producers of anything, it’s that a major recall can pose serious problems for a brand’s image with consumers. Changes made at the FDA throughout 2025 didn’t help set aside food safety concerns in the minds of many consumers, which is why there was widespread coverage by the national media in August when it was learned that the Boar’s Head Jarratt, Va., plant would reopen.
"Food recalls are issued for a variety of reasons, including contamination with bacteria like salmonella or E. coli, undeclared allergens, the presence of foreign objects or even mislabeling," says Bob Carpenter, president and CEO of data standards organization GS1 US. "Though the frequency of food recalls may seem concerning to some, it shows that the food safety system is more proactive and effective due to advances in science, technology, and modern regulations. Improved tracking tools, barcoding standards, and traceability requirements are evolving to help identify and remove affected products and better respond to recalls."
Consumers’ continued focus on food safety hasn’t been lost on the F&B industry. If ProFood World learned anything at PACK EXPO Las Vegas, it was that manufacturers and OEMs alike have taken those lessons learned from the 2024 recalls to heart. There was a clear emphasis on sanitary design at many of the OEM booths the editors of ProFood World, Packaging World, Healthcare Packaging, and OEM Magazine saw at the show. You can see the ones that the editors found to be the most interesting in early 2026 in our Innovations Reports.
Whether or not any of these predictions will come true is uncertain, but that’s the great thing about articles like this: If we get it wrong, well, we tried. If we get it right, then we’re geniuses. What we can say with certainty, though, is that anything that happens in 2026 has got to be better than “6-7.”
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The ability to harness production data effectively can lead to smarter decision-making, improved processes and a competitive edge. Analyzing historical data allows operations management to identify patterns, trends and anomalies that may otherwise go unnoticed.SmartSights
By incorporating real-time data collection software and automatically tagging downtime, Cincinnati-based G&J Pepsi is taking analytics to a new level and has reduced engineering time by 70%.G&J Pepsi
