Technology in the Driver's Seat: Scaling AI with Decision Intelligence in CPG with Ash Mehra

Decision Back brings together the brightest minds in decision science, leaders navigating high-stakes choices, and entrepreneurs building smarter ways to decide. Whether you're running a business or just navigating life, this conversation is for you. Press play and start making better decisions.

On this episode of The Decision-Back Podcast, Lanny sits down with Ash Mehra, former Chief Data and Information Officer at Constellation Brands and Senior Advisor at Boston Consulting Group, to discuss the evolution of consumer goods and how technology has moved from the back office into the driver’s seat on commercial outcomes.

Ash has spent three decades inside some of the best-known brands in the world, including Procter & Gamble, Mondelēz International, Chobani, Packable and Constellation Brands. Drawing on that experience, he and Lanny explore what replaced scale and brand as the industry’s moat, when technology leaders became accountable for the P&L, what separates the CPG companies scaling AI from the ones still stuck in pilots, and how ready organizations really are for agentic AI that acts on commercial decisions rather than just recommending them. They close on why the decision itself remains the least-engineered part of the enterprise, where decision intelligence fits alongside analytics, AI and core systems, and what Ash would build first if he were a sitting CDIO again.

Ash advises consumer goods and enterprise leaders on turning AI into business results and chairs the Industry 4.0 Innovation Council at Faclon Labs. Connect with him on LinkedIn.