Promo-Innovate’s Wingard: AI Shift by 2026

The promotional products industry is in the middle of a massive digital transformation that’s changing how we all connect with customers and run our shops. Customer expectations and new tech are driving this shift, which demands different leaders and smarter strategies. You can see this happening with the recent news of Eric Wingard becoming the new CEO of Promo-Innovate, a major player in our space. His plan to bake in AI and automation is going to completely overhaul industry standards, and these moves will absolutely shake up the competitive field for both distributors and suppliers.

Context and Background: A Shifting Industry Model

For decades, this business ran on thick product catalogs and face-to-face meetings. That model is officially broken. The digital push across every industry forced us to rethink everything fast. A 2025 report from the Promotional Products Association International (PPAI) confirms it: over 60% of promo buys now have an online component, which is a massive jump from 35% just five years ago. This means suppliers and distributors have to get their digital storefronts in order, make ordering dead simple, and start offering more personal service. This is exactly what Promo-Innovate is doing under Wingard by building out better e-commerce and using predictive analytics. As Wingard put it in a recent press release, “The future is about selling solutions tailored to individual client needs, at scale.” With his background in SaaS development, expect him to push hard for scalable, cloud-based platforms.

Implications for the Promotional Products Sector

Wingard’s leadership at Promo-Innovate points to some major changes for the whole promo industry. First, get ready for a much bigger emphasis on AI-driven personalization. A system could automatically suggest the right promo items by looking at a client’s purchase history, what’s trending in their market, and even their active marketing campaigns. This kind of predictive tech, run on platforms like Salesforce Marketing Cloud, dramatically cuts down the time clients spend deciding and boosts supplier conversion rates. Second, supply chain automation is about to become a major dividing line between competitors. Automated inventory, order fulfillment, and logistics will slash errors and speed up deliveries which directly affects customer happiness. Any company still doing this stuff manually is going to be left in the dust. A recent Reuters study found that businesses that automated their supply chains cut operational costs by an average of 8% within 18 months. This is a measurable financial benefit.

What’s Next: Innovation and Adaptation

The only way forward is to keep innovating and adapting. Distributors and suppliers need to get on a solid CRM system, like HubSpot, to actually manage client relationships and see what’s happening across all their digital touchpoints. Augmented reality (AR) for product visualization is also catching on quickly. Letting a client use their phone to see a branded tote bag on their conference room table before they place a big order makes the sale so much easier and cuts down on returns. This tech used to be a novelty, but now buyers (especially the younger ones) are starting to expect it. The single biggest hurdle is probably training your people. Companies have to invest in real training for these new digital tools. Why? Because without a team that knows how to use the tech, even the best digital setup is worthless. The pace of digital transformation in promo is so fast that standing still is the same as moving backward. Firms that buy the new tech, train their people, and build a customer-first digital experience, the kind of thing leaders like Eric Wingard are pushing for, are the ones who will own the future. The next few years will draw a very clear line between the companies that get it and the ones that get left behind.