Fewer people are drinking, and your distributor's software now helps decide which brands get sold.

Beer, wine and spirits make money in three steps. A supplier makes the drink. A distributor buys it and sells it to stores, bars and restaurants. The store or bar sells it to the drinker. Each step takes its share, and each fights for the drinker's attention.

Fewer people are drinking. Only 54% of American adults say they drink. That is the lowest in 87 years of Gallup's tracking, and it held there for a second year. In 2023 it was 62%. A majority now say one or two drinks a day is bad for health. About one in six adults has swapped some drinks for nonalcoholic ones. AI did not cause this. But it changes how companies fight over what is left.

Big suppliers are using AI to sell. Pernod Ricard, the maker of Absolut and Jameson, gives its sales reps an AI tool. It tells each rep which products to push, which stores to visit first and how often to go back. Pernod also uses AI to plan promotions in more than 20 of its top markets. Its sales still fell 3% in 2025 and about 4% in 2026. AI helps a company win share. It does not make the market grow.

The largest distributor is using AI to serve small accounts. In July 2026, Southern Glazer's moved some independent stores and bars away from visits by a sales rep. They are now served by phone, by its ordering website and by AI. It cut about 1% of its US jobs. Its ordering website already handles about $4 billion of sales, and it is adding AI suggestions about what each account should stock.

The middle tier is being reshuffled. RNDC, one of the largest distributors, has sold or left more than 35 markets in 2026. This is not about AI. It is about lost suppliers and costs. But when your distributor changes, the tools it uses to sell your brand change too.

Promotions are getting sharper. Large suppliers now use AI to see which deals actually sell more cases, and to stop the ones that do not. A brand that cannot see its own sales by store keeps paying for deals that do nothing.

Why this matters for a smaller brand. When a sales rep walked into a store, a small brand could win a spot because the rep liked it. When software suggests what a store should order, the brand needs data that makes the software choose it. That usually means sales history, which new brands do not have.

Here is what that looks like in practice. A craft brewer sells 40% of its beer through 300 independent stores and bars. Its distributor moves those accounts from rep visits to online ordering. If the ordering site does not suggest the brewer's beer, and sales in those accounts fall 15%, the brewer loses about 6% of its volume. Nothing about the beer changed.

What should a leader in this industry do first? Three plain things.

1. Ask each distributor how its ordering site and sales tools decide which brands to suggest, and where yours rank.
2. Get your own sales data by account, every month, so you can see a drop the month it starts.
3. Decide which accounts matter enough that you will pay for your own people to visit them.

None of this needs a new team or a large budget. It needs one leader who owns each answer.

The full guide shows where AI touches the money, what has actually happened, who gains and who loses, and what to ask before you spend.