AI Consulting for CPG, Supply Chain & Logistics

Your team doesn't need 'AI transformation.' They need the right problems solved.

We sit with your team, watch the actual work, find the bottlenecks worth fixing, and build systems simple enough that people use them from day one.

The Reality

The true cost of AI is never on the invoice.

When business owners budget for AI, they add up software licenses, consulting fees, and a rough timeline. The real cost of getting it wrong runs much deeper.

80%
of AI projects fail to deliver their intended business value. That is twice the failure rate of non-AI technology projects.
RAND Corporation, 2025
95%
of generative AI pilots produced zero measurable return. Not low return. Zero. The failure was almost never the technology.
MIT Project NANDA, 2025
42%
of companies abandoned most of their AI initiatives in 2025, up sharply from just 17% the year before.
S&P Global Market Intelligence, 2025

The pattern is consistent: the technology was never the problem. The problem was never clearly defined before the building started.

Who we work with

CPG brands, consumer goods companies, and the supply chain, logistics, and distribution businesses that support them.

How we get paid

We charge for our work and our time. We do not accept commissions or referral fees from any tool or platform.

Where we build

Inside the tools your team already uses, with new platforms introduced only when there is no reasonable alternative.

What you own

Every system we build, every line of documentation, and every byte of operational data remains under your control.

Selected Work

Problems we have solved.

Route-to-market, marketing analytics, data infrastructure. A sample of what we have taken on.

Route-to-Market · Distribution

Rebuilding the Delivery Math for a Rural Distribution Network

A CPG company's rural delivery routes had grown for years on relationships and habit rather than math. We rebuilt them algorithmically, keeping the same field distributors and infrastructure in place.

Read more →
Marketing Analytics · CPG

Marketing Mix Modeling and SKU Optimization Across Global CPG Portfolios

Across several CPG portfolios, we kept finding the same gap: marketing spend set on historical precedent with no model to say what was actually working. We built one, and delivered 3–5% promotional uplift on seven-figure campaign budgets.

Read more →
Data Infrastructure · Manufacturing & Healthcare

From Legacy Reporting to Decisions Your Team Can Make Today

Large manufacturing and healthcare organizations had years of commercial data sitting in systems that took two to three weeks to query. We modernized the infrastructure without replacing what worked and gave their teams real-time answers.

Read more →
What We Do

Three capabilities. One integrated system.

We audit your workflows, build AI systems your team will actually use, and stay on to maintain them in the background.

01 / Audit

We find the work worth automating.

The RAND Corporation found the #1 reason AI projects fail is that the problem was never clearly defined. Our audit fixes that before any money gets spent on implementation.

  • Full workflow mapping, function by function: from demand planning to last-mile delivery
  • Reliability scores with adoption risk flagged
  • Honest assessment of what to skip
  • Sequenced plan with effort and payback estimates
02 / Build

Systems your team will actually use.

We co-develop solutions with your team, not for them. Whether it’s automating PO routing, building exception-handling logic for your WMS, or connecting trade promotion data across retail portals — the done-with-you approach means your people have ownership from day one.

  • Co-developed with your team, not handed off cold
  • Built inside your existing platforms: ERP, WMS, TMS, EDI, or whatever you run
  • Training happens during the build, not after
  • Edge-case tested before production
  • Full documentation at handover. You own it all
03 / Maintain

We keep it running. You keep running your business.

Your data stays in your control. We handle model updates, edge cases, and security reviews quietly in the background, so your team can focus on throughput, not troubleshooting.

  • Regular performance reporting
  • Background updates, no routine disruption
  • High-bar data security throughout
  • Direct access when something breaks
The Hidden Cost

A failed AI implementation costs you a great deal more than the invoice.

Most owners frame the worst case as wasted money. The wasted money is real, but it is the smallest part.

Months of your team's time

Spent on an implementation that did not work. Time they could have spent on something that did.

Internal political capital

Burned convincing skeptical team members to try it. Capital that is harder to raise the second time.

Cultural damage

When "AI" quietly becomes a punchline in your organization after a visible failure.

Customer-facing erosion

When something feels off to the people you serve, and they move on before you understand what changed.

The initiative you'll never approve

Because the last one burned everyone involved. Often the most expensive loss of all.

Unused tools still billing you

AI subscriptions tried once and abandoned. A slow financial leak that adds up over months.

“The failure is almost never the model. It is data readiness, workflow integration, and the absence of a defined outcome before build starts.” (MIT Project NANDA, 2025)
Is This Right for You?

We work with a small number of companies at a time.

Most businesses that succeed with AI can point to a specific, painful workflow and say "this is eating our time." If that describes your situation, we are probably a good fit.

You operate a CPG, supply chain, logistics, or distribution business with real operational depth
Your people are capable but stretched, and you can name three workflows burying your best contributors
You want working infrastructure from week one, not a strategy document nobody opens
You want full ownership of your data, systems, and the right to walk away with everything
You understand a small team means limited availability, and you would rather wait for full attention
About

A small team of subject-matter experts working with a small number of clients.

There is a genuine shortage of people willing to sit with your team, watch the work, and tell you plainly which parts AI can help and which parts it should leave alone. Most businesses are not evaluating tools. They are trying to get through Tuesday. We start there.

Pixels & Clicks is a lean AI consulting practice for CPG, supply chain, and logistics businesses. We operate under Arkatra LLC, a Wyoming-registered US entity.

We focus on these industries because they face a particular combination that makes the right AI implementation genuinely valuable and the wrong one genuinely costly:

  • High-volume operations with tight margins
  • Multi-channel distribution and retail partner coordination
  • Complex supply chain and vendor coordination
  • Teams stretched thin across too many manual processes

We exist at a gap in the market. Large consultancies need large engagement sizes. Freelancers bring narrow skill sets. The mid-market CPG or logistics business ends up overbuilt by the first group or underserved by the second. We are built for that middle ground.

We never take vendor commissions.

Most consultants earn revenue from referral arrangements with the tools they recommend. We do not. If the best answer for your business is something you already own, we will tell you that.

We do not build AI to replace your team.

No AI model fully replaces an experienced professional. We build systems that hand those hours back. Your people stay. Their work improves.

We treat data security as a design constraint.

Your AI infrastructure touches sensitive operational data. We build it with the same care we would use if it were our own business: access controls, encryption, audit logs from day one.

Consulting

AI Consulting and Advisory

Strategic and operational consulting for CPG, supply chain, and logistics businesses. We audit workflows end-to-end, build automation that fits inside your existing stack — from ERP and WMS to TMS and EDI — and maintain it in the background.

Services

Three consulting engagements. Each one delivers working infrastructure.

Most AI consulting stops at strategy. Ours starts there and continues through to production.

01

AI Workflow Audit

We have learned not to trust what businesses say they need at the start of an engagement. Not because they are wrong, but because the real problem is almost always buried underneath the request.

An owner asks for "AI." What they actually need is to stop one person from spending eleven hours a week on a task that should take forty-five minutes.

What the audit covers:

  • Every workflow that consumes meaningful team time
  • Each candidate scored for reliability, adoption risk, and return
  • Honest flags on workflows that look automatable but are not
  • Identification of problems that do not need AI at all
  • A prioritized implementation plan in plain English

What you walk away with:

  • A document a non-technical executive can act on
  • Honest cost and effort estimates
  • A clear sequence: what to do first, second, third, and what to skip
02

AI Implementation & Integration

How we build:

  • Inside the tools your team already uses
  • New platforms only when there is no honest alternative
  • Training included. Your team learns the system as we build it
  • Every workflow tested against real-world edge cases
  • Complete documentation at handover

What is different:

  • We do not disappear after handover
  • We do not bill you for tools we resell. We do not resell tools
  • We do not push platforms where they do not fit

Most of what we build is not "AI" in the way people imagine it. It is workflow automation with intelligence applied where it earns its keep.

03

Infrastructure Maintenance & Optimization

Why this matters:

  • AI models update regularly, and workflows need ongoing adjustment
  • Your business evolves. What worked in Q1 may not work in Q3
  • New edge cases surface that need handling
  • Data security standards shift, and staying current is not optional

What we provide:

  • Performance reporting with documented metrics
  • Workflow adjustments in the background with no routine disruption
  • Direct access when something breaks
  • Ongoing security review with full audit trail
  • Periodic optimization reviews

You own the data. You own the infrastructure. You can take it elsewhere at any time.

Not sure which engagement fits? Tell us where your team is stuck.

Why Us

Three things we will not do.

Most consulting firms lead with what they offer. We think the more useful signal is what a firm refuses to do, because that is where their incentives show up.

01

No vendor commissions, ever.

Most AI consultants earn referral revenue from the tools they recommend. The buyer who already has Zapier sitting unused in a tab knows intuitively that the configuration is the work, not the idea.

  • We are paid for our time and work. That is the only way
  • Tool recommendations based entirely on fit
  • If the best option is free or something you own, we will say so
02

No replacement theatre.

Nobody cares about "AI." They care about catching chargebacks before they hit, saving ten hours a week on manual data entry, or stopping inventory discrepancies from snowballing. The technology is a means. The outcome is the product.

  • No AI model fully replaces an experienced professional
  • We take the repetitive work off your people's plates: compliance checks, shipment tracking, demand forecasting
  • Your team stays; the work that buries them goes to the machine
03

A limited client roster, by design.

This costs us revenue. We keep it anyway. When you are in, our SMEs are paying full attention to your business, not splitting it across twenty engagements.

  • Small number of clients at any given time
  • When at capacity, we say so directly
  • Small team + limited roster = real focus

What we can tell you upfront

We have walked away from engagements where the audit did not surface a clear path to measurable improvement. The honest answer is sometimes no, and in our experience, that is where trust gets built and referrals start.

Our Work

Three problem categories. Each one solved without disrupting how your team already works.

Client names are withheld by default. The work is documented in enough detail that you can judge whether the problem maps to yours.

01
Route-to-Market · Distribution

Rebuilding the Delivery Math for a Rural Distribution Network

The problem

A large CPG company operated a rural distribution network built around thousands of micro-entrepreneurs: field distributors carrying products the last mile into villages and small towns.

The routes had grown organically for years without anyone modeling whether they made sense. Territory assignments were based on relationships and historical precedent. The network looked complete on a map, but delivery cycles were inconsistent and logistics costs were difficult to explain or defend.

What we did
  • Audited the existing distribution logic before proposing any changes
  • Applied Nearest Neighbor Optimization directly to the legacy network: same field distributors, same infrastructure, rebuilt mathematically
  • Calculated the most efficient path across thousands of delivery nodes, replacing hand-drawn territory assignments with a framework that could be updated as the network changed
  • Built a separate multi-distributor optimization model for a South India territory conflict where overlapping coverage was creating gaps neither team could see clearly
  • Handed over documentation written for the operations team, not for a consultant
How we approached it

We didn't bring in a new platform or propose replacing what the company had built. The network ran on the same infrastructure it always had, just finally supported by the right math.

Outcome
  • Distribution cycle times improved across the rural network
  • Logistics overhead came down
  • Model deployed across multiple high-complexity rural markets and held up in each one
  • Recognized at the CEO level as a solution that worked inside the real constraints of an existing operation
02
Marketing Analytics · CPG

Marketing Mix Modeling and SKU Optimization Across Global CPG Portfolios

The problem

Across several large CPG portfolios in oral care, confectionery, and alcoholic beverages, the same structural problem kept appearing.

Marketing budgets had accumulated around historical patterns. Nobody had a model to say which channels were actually driving sales, or which SKUs were earning their shelf space versus quietly dragging the rest. When budgets got tight, there was nothing to cut against except last year's plan.

What we did
  • Audited each client's data-capture workflows before writing a line of model code: established a single version of the truth first
  • Built Marketing Mix Modeling frameworks in Python and SPSS to quantify the direct relationship between media spend and sales
  • Layered in SKU-level recommendation engines to identify which products were driving category growth versus cannibalizing it
  • Worked at the brand level for the confectionery portfolio across flagship chocolate and biscuit lines in India
  • Delivered outputs directly to the people setting the budget, in a form they could use without a statistician in the room
Key result

3–5% promotional uplift post-reallocation. On budgets running to seven figures across multiple campaigns, that number adds up quickly.

Outcome
  • Capital moved from underperforming channels to the ones that were earning it
  • SKU cannibalization patterns surfaced that had been invisible in aggregate dashboards
  • Budget conversations shifted from historical precedent to models the team could update each cycle
03
Data Infrastructure · Manufacturing & Healthcare

From Legacy Reporting to Decisions Your Team Can Make Today

The problem

Large organizations in manufacturing and healthcare had the same gap: enormous amounts of commercial data, almost none of it usable on a timeline that mattered.

Reports the commercial team needed were sitting in legacy BI systems: QlikView, older stacks, siloed databases. They were taking two to three weeks to generate. By the time a question got answered, the business had already moved on.

What we did
  • Migrated legacy BI infrastructure to Azure and GCP while keeping the core business logic intact
  • Built the migration to preserve what worked: the goal was scale, not replacement
  • Deployed Natural Language-to-Query tools so business users could ask questions directly, without filing a report request
  • Added Computer Vision where it applied, layered on top of existing data flows
  • Ran change management alongside the build: teams were trained as the system went up, not handed a manual at the end
How we approached it

We kept everything that worked and modernized what didn't. The team's existing knowledge of their data stayed intact, and the enterprise infrastructure the company had spent years building remained in place.

Outcome
  • Reporting cycles dropped from weeks to near-real-time
  • Commercial teams stopped waiting on reports and started answering their own questions
  • All changes were additive: nothing in the existing infrastructure was torn out

Client names are withheld throughout. Identifying details have been changed. If you are evaluating a similar problem and want to understand how we approached it, the best conversation happens on a call.

Let’s Talk

Tell us what you are working with. We will give you a straight answer.

Every inquiry is read personally. Usually within one business day.

What happens next

  • We read your message personally
  • If there is a fit, we schedule a 30-minute call
  • On the call: no sales deck, no demo, no discovery ritual
  • We ask specific questions about how your business operates
  • We give an honest assessment of where AI can help, and where it cannot
  • If we are not the right fit, we will tell you and try to point you somewhere useful

This is a conversation, not a sales call. No pitch, no pressure, no follow-up sequence. Just a straight discussion about whether we can help.