Packaging budgets are under constant pressure from material costs, freight costs, and labor constraints. At the same time, advances in AI, automated packaging systems, and robotics are giving packaging and fulfillment teams practical ways to improve efficiency and reduce avoidable operating costs without compromising product protection or the customer experience.
AI Moves From Pilot Projects to Daily Operations
Artificial intelligence is moving beyond isolated trials in packaging and processing. PMMI's 2026 report, Building an AI Advantage in Packaging Equipment, identifies lower costs, greater accessibility, increased awareness, and growing confidence as factors behind broader adoption. PMMI says the leading applications include knowledge transfer and machine vision, followed by predictive maintenance, regulation and compliance, and data transparency. [1]
Predictive maintenance is a particularly established application. The frequently cited figures of 43 percent of CPG companies currently using predictive maintenance and 45 percent planning to adopt it within three years come from PMMI's 2022 Future of Automation research—not the 2026 AI report. The figures therefore should not be presented as evidence of 2026 adoption levels. [2]
Right-Sizing Stops Companies From Shipping Air
Oversized boxes can increase packaging-material consumption, void fill, and transport costs when carriers price shipments partly according to dimensional or volumetric weight. Automated right-sizing systems address this by measuring the contents and producing a box tailored to the order.
Packsize's CVP Everest, for example, measures, constructs, glues, weighs, and labels custom-sized boxes and is specified by Packsize at up to 1,100 orders per hour with two operators. Packsize also reports reductions in package volume and cardboard use, although these savings vary by application and should be treated as vendor-reported results rather than universal outcomes. [3]
Regulation Is Turning Cost-Cutting Into Compliance
The EU Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation (PPWR) generally began applying on August 12, 2026. However, the regulation does not impose a 40 percent empty-space cap on e-commerce parcels from that date.
Under Article 24, a maximum empty-space ratio of 50 percent for grouped packaging, transport packaging, and e-commerce packaging is scheduled to apply from January 1, 2030, or three years after the relevant Commission implementing act establishing the calculation methodology enters into force, whichever is later. The PPWR also contains a broader requirement to reduce empty space to the minimum necessary for sales packaging from February 12, 2028. [4]
For brands shipping into the EU, right-sizing is therefore increasingly relevant to both cost efficiency and future compliance—but the specific 40 percent/2026 claim should be removed.
Robotics Get More Intelligent and Flexible
Robotics are also becoming more capable as AI and advanced sensing are integrated into industrial automation. At Automate 2026, FANUC highlighted physical-AI applications in which robots can perceive their environment, make decisions, and act in real time, alongside technologies designed to support more adaptive and connected automation. [5]
These developments can make robotic automation more flexible and potentially easier to deploy across variable production environments. However, the original claim that AI is cutting robotics setup times from months to minutes or hours should not be stated as a general industry fact without a more specific, independently verifiable source.
The Bottom Line
No single technology eliminates packaging costs on its own. But together, AI-enabled maintenance and quality systems, right-sizing automation, and increasingly intelligent robotics give packaging operations several levers for improving cost per unit shipped: predictive maintenance can reduce unplanned downtime, right-sizing can reduce material use and dimensional-weight exposure, and automation can increase throughput while addressing labor constraints.
The strongest business case comes from matching the technology to a measurable operational problem—such as downtime, excess packaging material, shipping volume, labor-intensive packing, or quality losses—and validating the savings against the actual line or fulfillment operation.
References
1. PMMI, “2026 Building an AI Advantage in Packaging Equipment,” February 3, 2026. https://www.pmmi.org/report/2026-building-an-ai-advantage-in-packaging-equipment
2. PMMI, “The Future of Automation / Challenges and Opportunities,” 2022. The report states that 43% of CPGs were using predictive maintenance and 45% planned to use it within three years.
3. Packsize, “Continuously Variable Packaging (CVP)” and CVP Everest product information. https://www.packsize.com/blog/continuously-variable-packaging-for-smarter-fulfillment
4. European Union, Regulation (EU) 2025/40, Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation, Article 24 and Article 71. https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/reg/2025/40/oj/eng
5. FANUC America, “FANUC America Showcases Physical AI and AI Enabled Robotics Demos at Automate 2026.” https://www.fanucamerica.com/press-releases/fanuc-america-showcases-physical-ai-and-ai-enabled-robotics-demos-at-automate-2026