The beverage industry is abuzz with talk of AI adoption. Some argue it should be done in increments — a few percentage points here, a pilot program there.
But Lovella Adams, senior vice president of technical, innovation and supply chain at The Coca-Cola Company, suggested that framing misses the point.
During a keynote she gave at BevTech 2026 earlier this year, titled "Technology RenAIssance in the Beverage Industry," Adams argued that the shift underway isn't incremental, it's exponential — and that companies that treat it that way could be the ones to define the next generation of billion-dollar brands.
Here are four takeaways from her talk.
1. Linear thinking doesn't cut it anymore
Adams opened with a thought experiment to frame the stakes: the difference between taking 30 steps and taking 30 exponential steps. A linear walk gets you maybe down the hall, but an exponential one gets you much further. "If you take 30 exponential steps, you'll take a billion steps and you'll be able to go around the Earth 26 times," she said.
The gap between linear and exponential thinking is one many manufacturing organizations are underestimating right now, she argued. One possible response, Adams suggested, is building a bench of what she calls technocrats, people whose influence comes from "a deep understanding of all things technical.”
Leaders like that, she argued, are well positioned to help steer AI adoption rather than watch from the sidelines.
2. Quality moving from inspection to prediction
Adams pointed to "Quality 4.0" as one example of what reimagined manufacturing might look like in practice. The approach is built around embedding intelligence into every part of the process, rather than checking quality only at the end.
In her view, catching problems before they become problems, from raw material sourcing through to the moment a consumer opens the product, is a critical piece of that shift. Such an approach could be powered by data and digitization running the length of the value chain, rather than a single checkpoint at the end of the line.
3. AI adoption means going beyond surface level
Adams was direct about the scale of opportunity she sees in digital transformation for beverage manufacturers.
"It's not two to three percent improvements," she said. "It's double digit improvements across the supply chain."
That kind of transformation, in her framing, could touch areas including asset utilization, labor productivity, inventory optimization, and maintenance costs.
She cautioned against treating AI adoption as a surface-level makeover, noting that cosmetic change isn't the same as transformation. Real gains, she argued, come from rebuilding how decisions get made and not just how things look.
4. Unleashing human potential
Adams pushed back on the anxiety that often surrounds conversations about AI and automation, framing it instead as an opportunity for beverage technologists.
"Everything that can be automated will be automated, but the things that won't be automated are the things that we don't want to do anyway," she said. "Automation doesn't steal human potential, but rather it’s about unleashing the next wave of human potential."
The idea, as she described it: freeing technical teams from repetitive work opens room for the judgment calls AI can't make.
Adams closed with a line from former Coca-Cola CEO Robert Woodruff: "The best time to change is when you don't have to."
Adam’s approach is one that asks beverage technologists to sit with the space between human expertise and digitization, and consider what might be gained by leaning into it early.
