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Futurist's Column: Automation, Smart Packaging Shape Efficiency, Engagement

The packaging industry is undergoing a transformation in 2025, working to redefine efficiency, quality, and consumer engagement through high-speed systems, AI-driven tools, and smart, eco-friendly designs.

Brian Wagner

The packaging industry is experiencing a transformative wave, driven by automation, robotics, the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT), digital twins, machine learning, and additive manufacturing (AM). These technologies are redefining efficiency, quality, and consumer engagement in packaging operations. High-speed systems handle precise dosing and quality checks, while collaborative robots (cobots), AI-driven tools, and digital twins—virtual replicas of physical systems—optimize processes in real time. Additive manufacturing, or 3D printing, delivers tailored, eco-friendly designs to meet modern demands. Smart packaging, featuring QR codes and sensors, enhances traceability and connects with consumers, a key priority for CPG professionals.

A Vision Rooted in Foresight

In 1998, the study "The Future of Packaging: a 2020 Vision" convened futurists and industry leaders to explore how emerging technologies might transform packaging by 2020. One bold concept was using fMRI (a new medical device) to generate consumer brain maps when experiencing packaging; Martin Lindstrom’s 2008 book Buy-ology documents his global study just a decade later. The 1998 vision also highlighted microtaggants, which are tiny, color-coded markers for tracing materials in applications like explosives detection and brand protection, and micro-electronic machine systems (MEMS), which embedded sensors and actuators in chips envisioned as functional packaging materials additives. Industrial automation was spotlighted, with advanced robotic arms, cobots, and AI-powered software like chatbots and recommendation systems, driven by robust microprocessors and the expanding internet. These early insights laid the groundwork for today’s intelligent, connected packaging systems.

Why Automation Matters in 2025

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