ORTEC to exhibit at 2026 NBWA Convention and share new survey findings

ORTEC will exhibit at the 89th Annual National Beer Wholesalers Association (NBWA) Convention & Product Showcase, taking place October 11–14 in San Antonio, Texas. As a Supporting Sponsor of this year's event, ORTEC will be in Booth 410 at the Product Showcase on October 12 to discuss how beer and beverage distributors can reduce planning complexity and make work flow across transportation and logistics operations.

ORTEC will also showcase findings from its latest survey of beer and beverage industry executives examining the adoption and application of decision-support technologies, including artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML) and agentic AI. The research builds on the company’s 2025 AI research, which found that organizations were moving cautiously toward AI adoption while facing challenges around integration, explainability, data quality and return on investment.

While the 2026 research focuses specifically on beer and beverage distribution, its findings show an industry moving beyond interest in AI alone and toward a more practical objective: making complex operations easier to manage, improving responsiveness and helping teams make operational decisions with greater confidence.

Making Operational Decisions Work Better

More than three-quarters of respondents (76%) said technology that supports actionable routing and loading decisions is either “extremely important” or “very important” when evaluating potential solution providers, including 41% who rated it extremely important.

For beer and beverage distributors managing constrained fleets, complex delivery networks, changing customer requirements and daily exceptions, the value lies in more than isolated data or recommendations. They need technology that reduces operational friction and enables decisions that can be acted on and trusted.

ORTEC’s 2025 research found that AI adoption was still largely limited to specific operational areas, with only 15% of respondents reporting extensive integration across their organizations. The 2026 results suggest that as beer and beverage distributors consider broader adoption, they are increasingly focused on practical applications that improve how work gets done; not technology for technology’s sake.

Technology Must Strengthen Planners’ Decisions

The latest research also reinforces the importance of human-AI collaboration. Forty-six percent of respondents believe AI will act as an assistant that augments planner decisions over the next five years, while another 38% expect AI to handle routine decisions while planners focus on exceptions. Only 7% believe AI will fully replace most planning roles.

That compares with just 5% of respondents in ORTEC’s 2025 research who believed AI could fully replace human roles within five years. Together, the findings reinforce that beer and beverage distributors view technology as a way to remove low-value decision-making, surface relevant information and help planners respond more effectively – not as a replacement for operational expertise.

Organizations Seek a Practical Path Forward

Despite growing interest in AI, many organizations remain uncertain about where to begin. More than half of respondents (52%) said they are only somewhat confident in identifying the right first use case for AI or agentic AI, while another 24% are not confident they know where to start.

At the same time, 44% said their primary goal through the end of 2026 is to significantly expand AI use into new departments or processes, suggesting beer and beverage distributors are looking for practical ways to reduce operational complexity across more of the business and apply decision-support capabilities where they create measurable impact.

“Beer and beverage distributors are not looking for technology simply because it is AI; they are looking for ways to make complex work more manageable and improve the quality and speed of operational decisions,” said Aaron Geiger, Director of Wholesale Industry Accounts at ORTEC. “Our research shows that they also see AI as a partner for their planners, not a replacement, and many are looking for guidance on where optimization, decision intelligence and AI will deliver the greatest value. The opportunity is to eliminate unnecessary decision-making, help teams respond to variability and give planners more confidence that their plans will work in the real world.”

Building on the survey findings, ORTEC representatives will be available throughout the conference to discuss how optimization, decision intelligence and practical AI help beer and beverage distributors reduce operational friction and improve transportation planning, route optimization, load building and day-to-day delivery execution.

For more information or to schedule a meeting with an ORTEC representative at the 2026 NBWA Convention & Product Showcase, visit https://ortec.com/nbwa-2026.