Generative AI and sustainability both play a crucial role in the future of chemical product portfolios.
Advanced Manufacturing
April 3, 2025
The container and packaging industry is booming, set to surpass $2 trillion by 2034. But rapid growth brings complex challenges — supply chain disruptions, sustainability pressures, rising material costs, and heightened consumer expectations.
This dynamic sector spans a wide range of products and materials, including film, packaging, containers, adhesives, and specialty tape, all designed to protect, preserve, and transport goods efficiently.
From pharmaceutical bottles and flexible food packaging to industrial tanks and specialty tapes for secure sealing, the industry serves diverse markets such as healthcare, e-commerce, food and beverage, and consumer goods.
These markets are ripe for innovation. But innovation often begets even greater challenges — ranging from sustainability pressures and supply chain disruptions to the need for customized solutions that balance cost-effectiveness with performance.
To meet these challenges head-on, leveraging advanced tools like GenAI is key. Doing so empowers professionals in sales and customer success roles to deliver better outcomes for their clients (and bottom lines).
While containers and packaging face distinct challenges, several overarching issues impact both industries and across the numerous verticals they serve.
These shared obstacles create significant hurdles for sales and customer success teams, especially as they strive to meet customer expectations while navigating operational complexities.
Disruptions in global supply chains continue to pose challenges for both containers and packaging.
Sales teams often find themselves in the difficult position of reassuring customers about delivery timelines while managing fluctuating costs and availability.
Supply chain disruptions — such as tariffs, raw material shortages, or logistical bottlenecks — create significant challenges for sales teams, who must manage fluctuating availability and reassure customers about delivery timelines.
Generative AI solutions like Nesh empower sales teams to help their customers with these challenges by surfacing relevant insights from enterprise data, such as historical supply chain trends or material specifications. These insights allow sales reps to provide clear expectations or explanations for timing or delays and offer alternatives based on available resources.
Sales reps gain the tools they need to build customer relationships founded on transparency and trust during challenging times. When times are tough, customers know they can rely on their suppliers to help them solve problems.
The increasing prices of raw materials like wood, corrugate, and specialty polymers impact both containers and packaging. For example, sourcing recycled materials for sustainable packaging or durable alloys for reusable containers often comes with a higher price tag than other options.
Adopting sustainable practices, such as transitioning to eco-friendly adhesives or coatings or reusable containers, requires investment in research and development, driving up costs further.
Sales professionals must navigate these financial pressures by positioning their products as long-term investments that deliver value despite higher upfront costs.
Fluctuating raw material prices often requires sales teams to justify higher costs to customers while remaining competitive. Nesh’s Competitive Benchmarking Workflow enables teams to analyze pricing trends, compare supplier options, and identify cost-effective alternatives.
For instance, if a customer is exploring sustainable adhesives or coatings, Nesh can provide data-driven insights that allow sales reps to position these products as long-term investments that align with both environmental goals and budget constraints.
Modern consumers demand more than just functionality—they expect products to be sustainable, visually appealing, and easy to use. 90% of consumers are more likely to purchase from brands with sustainable packaging.
For packaging, this might mean designing transparent wrappers that showcase product freshness or incorporating QR codes for traceability.
Containers face similar pressures, such as ensuring modular designs that adapt to diverse transportation needs while maintaining aesthetic standards.
Balancing innovation with cost-effectiveness is a persistent challenge for sales teams who must demonstrate how their offerings meet these high expectations without inflating budgets.
Nesh Avatars empower sales teams to meet these expectations by providing quick access to product data, enabling them to tailor recommendations to specific customer needs.
For example, if a food and beverage company requires eco-friendly packaging that enhances freshness while maintaining visual appeal, Nesh can surface relevant product options from a company’s portfolio. This allows sales reps to present solutions that align with consumer values while adhering to budgetary constraints.
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The container industry, encompassing industrial tanks, modules, and other transport solutions, faces unique challenges that require a balance of customization, sustainability, and compliance.
Let’s look at two critical pain points sales and customer success teams must navigate.
Containers are highly customized products designed to meet specific customer requirements for transporting goods safely and efficiently.
Sales teams often face the following hurdles:
This level of customization demands not only technical expertise but also efficient tools to streamline the configuration process. Without these, sales teams risk delays, errors, and missed opportunities to deliver tailored solutions.
GenAI solutions like Nesh Sales AI streamline the configuration process by providing sales teams with instant access to the full breadth of their enterprise data and expert knowledge.
Take this example: if a sales rep needs to determine how changing one component of a tank impacts its overall performance, Nesh can surface relevant technical specifications, design documentation, or historical use cases.
This enables sales teams to deliver tailored solutions from their portfolio confidently while minimizing errors and delays. By acting as a virtual subject matter expert, Nesh ensures that sales reps can address customer needs quickly and accurately.
Sustainability is a growing priority across industries, and containers are no exception.
Companies must address several challenges:
Sales teams must communicate how their solutions meet sustainability goals or regulatory requirements without compromising performance or cost-effectiveness.
Nesh’s Product Recommendation Workflow helps sales teams identify sustainable materials and designs that extend container lifecycles while maintaining functionality.
If a customer requires eco-friendly materials for reusable containers, Nesh can analyze enterprise data to recommend options. Nesh’s and Compliance Workflow can also be used to ensure these products comply with regulations and align with environmental goals.
Additionally, Nesh enables sales reps to position the long-term value of these solutions — such as reduced waste, compliance cost savings, lower lifecycle costs — helping customers understand the ROI of eco-friendly investments.
Reusable containers are increasingly favored for their sustainability benefits, but ensuring they remain functional across multiple lifecycles introduces additional complexity.
Sales teams must address durability concerns by:
This challenge not only impacts product design but also requires ongoing customer support to ensure satisfaction and optimal use of reusable solutions.
Nesh Sales AI workflows support sales teams by surfacing insights into maintenance best practices and material performance over time.
Here’s an example. If a customer is concerned about the durability of a reusable container under repeated use, Nesh can retrieve past performance data or technical guidelines to help the sales team propose the most effective solutions.
Packaging is a broad and diverse industry, encompassing everything from pharmaceutical bottles and flexible food wrappers to consumer labels and industrial bulk solutions.
Each type of packaging serves unique purposes, but all share common challenges that sales and customer success teams must address to meet evolving market demands.
ESG and sustainability have become a cornerstone of packaging innovation, driven by regulatory pressures and growing consumer demand for eco-friendly solutions.
However, achieving sustainability in packaging is far from straightforward.
First, sourcing recyclable and biodegradable materials often comes at a premium, with limited availability in certain markets. Teams must also balance aesthetics, functionality, and environmental impact, which can lead to overdesign or compromises in performance.
Companies and buyers alike must also navigate complex recycling infrastructure and circular economy principles. This requires companies to rethink traditional packaging systems.
Sales teams must articulate how their products align with sustainability goals while maintaining cost-effectiveness and compliance with regulations like the EU Packaging Waste Regulation (PPWR). This is especially critical as consumers increasingly scrutinize packaging choices for environmental responsibility.
Our Product Recommendation Workflow enables sales reps to identify recyclable or biodegradable materials that meet both customer specifications and regulatory requirements.
For example, if a pharmaceutical company needs packaging that complies with PPWR while maintaining product integrity, Nesh can surface relevant material options from the company’s portfolio.
Packaging must protect goods during transportation while minimizing waste. This creates a delicate balancing act: ensuring durability without overusing materials.
And it gets really complicated really quickly. For example, flexible food wrappers must balance a lightweight design with durability to prevent spoilage during transit.
Finding the sweet spot is essential for reducing environmental impact.
Sales professionals often face the challenge of recommending solutions that meet these demands without inflating costs or compromising sustainability. Tailored approaches to product protection are vital for addressing specific customer needs.
GenAI solutions designed for packaging companies like Nesh Sales AI streamline decision-making by providing insights into product durability and transportation risks based on historical use cases.
For instance, if a food manufacturer requires flexible wrappers that prevent spoilage during transit while reducing material usage, Nesh helps sales reps retrieve relevant technical specifications and past performance data. This allows sales reps to confidently propose tailored solutions that optimize protection and sustainability for specific applications.
With countless material options available — from plastics and glass to compostable laminates — choosing the right one for a specific application is time-consuming and complex.
Sales teams often struggle to:
This process requires deep technical knowledge and efficient tools to streamline decision-making. Without them, sales professionals risk delays and missed opportunities to deliver tailored solutions that meet customer expectations. Every delayed customer interaction matters in the ongoing quest to accelerate deal cycles.
GenAI solutions with multimodal search capabilities like Nesh simplify material selection by quickly surfacing relevant options based on customer requirements.
For example, if a consumer goods company needs transparent packaging that balances aesthetics with recyclability, Nesh can analyze enterprise data to identify suitable materials within seconds. This efficiency reduces delays and ensures sales reps can deliver tailored recommendations that align with customer expectations for cost, performance, and sustainability.
The container and packaging industries are navigating a period of rapid growth and transformation, driven by evolving customer demands, regulatory pressures, and the push for sustainability.
But this growth doesn’t come without significant headwinds. Challenges — ranging from supply chain disruptions to material selection and product customization — place significant pressure on sales and customer success teams to deliver innovative, cost-effective solutions that meet both revenue and environmental goals.
Generative AI is poised to drive significant change in how container and packaging and companies meet these challenges head on.
Unlike general AI tools, Nesh Sales AI is built with deep domain expertise in materials, compliance standards, and supply chain challenges unique to containers and packaging — providing sales teams with accurate, relevant, and actionable insights that build strong customer relationships.
Whether it’s identifying sustainable materials, optimizing product configurations, or addressing durability concerns, Nesh acts as a trusted partner in overcoming the industry’s most pressing roadblocks and helps technical teams 10x their sales.
Ready to see firsthand how Nesh can simplify your complex sales workflows and help you win more deals? Book a demo personalized today.
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