Most CPGs are still structured for a pre-AI, pre-Retail Media world—where trade teams fund media, digital is siloed, and agility is a buzzword, not a reality.

Chris Perry and Oskar Kaszubski said it best on the Applied Intelligence podcast:

“No one wants another center of excellence.”

Because we don’t need more digital appendages.

We need orgs designed for how media actually works now—with clean rooms, agentic AI, and performance loops baked into the core.

Here’s what that looks like:

^{Stop making eComm a side project}

Too many orgs treat eCommerce as “just another channel.”

But real leaders:

→ Embed eComm-trained leads into brand, shopper, and retailer teams
→ Make them accountable for retailer growth—not just DTC

When digital sits inside the commercial engine, execution moves at the speed of commerce.

Move retail media out of trade

Retail media is not a discount.

Yet most CPGs still fund it from the trade budget—and track it like it’s a promotion.

→ Shift it to your performance media team
→ Fund it like marketing, not markdowns
→ Use clean room data to tie it to household penetration and long-term brand equity

This one change will unlock better measurement, better strategy, and better results.

Kill the Center of Excellence model

You don’t need another digital ivory tower.

→ Build embedded capability pods: small, cross-functional teams with brand, eComm, data, and creative
→ Run them like internal startups with clear KPIs
→ Let them test, learn, and scale—without chasing 9 layers of approval

CoEs manage. Pods ship.

Upskill your teams to influence algorithms—not just buy ads

Both guests emphasized: your teams shouldn’t just know how to buy ads—they should know how to influence algorithms.
→ Train brand and media managers to:

• Read AMC and clean room dashboards

• Write prompts that inform retail media strategies

• Build cases for incrementality using first-party data

The new marketer is part strategist, part prompt engineer, part growth hacker.

Appoint AI+Retail Media Architect

You don’t need another “Head of Digital.”

You need someone who knows how to:

→ Connect clean rooms, creative tools, agentic media platforms, and measurement models
→ Build systems that scale
→ Make every retail media dollar smarter over time

It’s not about flashy titles.
It’s about who owns the transformation.

Bottom line?

AI won’t replace your people.

But it will replace the way they work.

If your structure doesn’t evolve—your performance won’t either.

🎥 Watch full video here: