Still learning job abbreviations #IRDGAI

I’m teaching a new cohort of AI for Personal Productivity with Larry G. Maguire and the IRDGI Innovation Skillnet and it’s the first time I’ve met a large cohort of packaging people online together, especially FMCG people.

FMCG stands for Fast-Moving Consumer Goods (also referred to as CPG, or Consumer Packaged Goods). Gemini on my phone tells me these are products that sell quickly, are consumed frequently, have a relatively short shelf life, and are sold at relatively low unit costs. In Ireland, the FMCG sector is dominated by the grocery, food, and beverage industry, representing one of the largest and most resilient segments of the national economy.

I’ve taught AI to mid-career FMCG people before. Across Ireland, the key Categories for FMCG include things I buy every week:

• Dairy (milk and yougurt would be me)
• Bakery (avoiding white bread but my teen insists on white toast so)
• Foods & Snacks (we eat too many crisps, biscuits, and ready-to-eat meals.
• Beverages (always a six pack of soft drinks in our Press)
• Household & Personal Care: we use too much Persil and I'm working on that.

Distinct Trends Shaping Irish FMCG

• High Penetration of Private Label: Irish consumers buy a significant proportion of retailer own-brand products to manage weekly grocery budgets, putting pressure on branded shelf space.
• Health & Functional Nutrition: High demand for added-protein dairy (e.g., protein milk, yogurts) and clean-label functional foods.
• Deposit Return Scheme (DRS): The nationwide "Re-turn" initiative requires deposit-and-return workflows across single-use plastic bottles and aluminium cans, directly impacting beverage packaging and retail logistics.
• Origin and Traceability: Strong consumer loyalty toward Irish-produced goods, certified by bodies like Bord Bia and the "Guaranteed Irish" symbol.

What questions need answering

If you're in this same space in Ireland, there's an AI for Personal Productivity session that will answer questions you probably have. Check out the IRDG Innovation Skillnet for a hands-on deep dive to get answers.

This is the first time that ...

Larry Maguire, Josh Blake, and I are running AI for Personal Productivity for the tenth time this month. It is the longest-running short course AI training programme in Ireland (first offered with ChatGPT-3 in January 2023). This is the first time that the training cohort strongly identified with three AI services (e.g., ChatGPT, Claude, and Copilot) AND listed "workflow" as more important than learning how to use Google Gemini. This suggests the trainees want to know more about how things fit together than simply bashing away with a chatbot.

If you want to watch the progress of this training cohort, subscribe to Inside View from Ireland or follow Topgold on Bluesky.

List of sources used in Session 2

Burcher, M. (2026) 'When two years of academic work vanished with a single click', *Nature*. Available at: [www.nature.com/articles/...](https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-025-04064-7) (Accessed: 8 November 2026).

Goldbach, B. (2026b) 'Using a framework with AI', *Inside View*, 5 May. Available at: [insideview.ie/2026/05/0...](https://insideview.ie/2026/05/05/using-a-framework-with-ai.html) (Accessed: 8 November 2026).

HumanSpark (2026) 'Not all cloud AI is the same: the three tiers of AI privacy'. Available at: [humanspark.ai/ai-privac...](https://humanspark.ai/ai-privacy-tiers/) (Accessed: 8 November 2026).

Levine, A. (n.d.) 'I have been hallucinated' [Blog]. Available at: [czernie.weebly.com/blog/i-ha...](https://czernie.weebly.com/blog/i-have-been-hallucinated) (Accessed: 8 November 2026).

Lowry, M. (2026) 'Proof of human', *Leaflet*, 9 October. Available at: [mathewlowry.leaflet.pub/3mxgh342l...](https://mathewlowry.leaflet.pub/3mxgh342lsc2a) (Accessed: 8 November 2026).

McDermott, A. (2026a) 'Give your AI permission to disagree with you'. Available at: [www.inoreader.com/article/3...](https://www.inoreader.com/article/3a9c6e761e5528e7-give-your-ai-permission-to-disagree-with-you) (Accessed: 8 November 2026).

McDermott, A. (2026b) 'The Golden Rule of AI data privacy', *HumanSpark*. Available at: [humanspark.ai/golden-ru...](https://humanspark.ai/golden-rule-of-ai-data-privacy/) (Accessed: 8 November 2026).

McLeod, A. (2026) 'Nine Copilot upgrades (October 2026)' [YouTube video]. Available at: [www.youtube.com/watch](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kZpQRSFkfxY) (Accessed: 8 November 2026).

Penn, C. (2026) ‘Tell AI what wins’ [LinkedIn post]. Available at: www.linkedin.com/posts/csp… (Accessed: 8 November 2026).

Rasmussen, O. (2026) 'Claude as your personal assistant' [YouTube video]. Available at: [www.youtube.com/watch](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VnrKSBmAqIM) (Accessed: 8 November 2026).

Shapiro, D. (2025) 'The last 7 years of human work: understanding the Automation Cliff', 4 February. Available at: [www.autuas.com/summaries...](https://www.autuas.com/summaries/technology/automation/the-last-7-years-of-human-work-understanding-the-automation-cliff) (Accessed: 8 November 2026). [Summary page.]

The Guardian (2026) '"Our assumptions are broken": how fraudulent church data revealed AI's threat to polling', 28 March. Available at: [www.theguardian.com/technolog...](https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2026/mar/28/how-fraudulent-church-data-revealed-ais-threat-to-polling) (Accessed: 8 November 2026).