Cross-Functional Misalignment Remains RGM's Top Barrier | Buynomics

New global survey of 107 commercial leaders finds AI experimentation in RGM outpacing execution, even as cross-functional alignment fails to keep pace.

RGM's mandate is expanding faster than organizations' ability to align around it. That is the central finding of Future of RGM Report 2027 by Buynomics, a global study of how consumer packaged goods organizations are managing commercial decisions amid slowing price-led growth and rising private-label competition.

Cross-functional misalignment remains the most frequently cited barrier to scaling RGM for the second consecutive year, named by 56% of respondents, down from 63% in 2026. Separately, just 51% of respondents say conflicting priorities or KPIs across functions prevent the implementation of RGM recommendations already made.

"Better models don't drive better decisions, but decision rights do. The bottleneck is in conversion, not the analysis: 51% of respondents point to conflicting KPIs across functions and 48% to retailer constraints. A sound recommendation stalls not because the analysis is weak, but because there's no decision architecture around it. Without that structure, RGM fails in the Monday-morning sales meeting, not the strategy room," said Ilia Keshishev, Global RGM Lead, Danone.

AI adoption in RGM is splitting. Scaled or fully integrated AI adoption edged up only one percentage point, from 15% to 16% over the past year, even as the share of organizations piloting limited use cases rose from 45% to 61%. The share of RGM teams with no AI adoption at all fell from 40% to 23%. Experimentation is outpacing execution, and the gap between the two is widening.

Investment shows a similar gap between priority and constraint. Trade Promotion Effectiveness and Optimization is the top investment priority for 2027 for the second consecutive year, cited by 59% of respondents, even as 34% name capability building a top scaling challenge and 29% plan to cut investment in it.

Only 23.4% of respondents plan to increase investment in RGM team and capability building for 2027, even as the same gap remains a top-cited barrier to scaling.

"What stands out is that some of the areas facing the greatest investment pressure are also areas where organizations still report real capability or measurement challenges. That creates a difficult trade-off. Cost discipline matters, but RGM leaders also need to be clear about which investments remove the constraints that are holding execution back,"

Tim Schneider - Director of Sales Engineering & Partnerships, Buynomics

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The findings are based on Buynomics' global survey of 107 commercial leaders, fielded online between July 8 and August 27, 2026. They are paired with a separate, proprietary Buynomics analysis of 28,913 shopper data points from its client portfolio, spanning four industries and 13 countries.

The full analysis, including how shopper value concentrates by category and where brand still wins outright, is covered in the Future of RGM Report 2027, available for download now.