While there are a lot of highly anticipated educational sessions, keynotes and collaborative exchanges on the agenda of FMI — The Food Industry Association’s 2026 Midwinter Executive Conference, there is one component of the annual conference of food industry executives that always generates a palpable energy: the FMItech Pitch Competition.
Each year, a myriad of companies vie for a spot in the competition, all of which present unique solutions that enhance the customer experience, support retailer operations and address the needs of today’s food retailers.
“I’m very proud that several of our previous FMItech Pitch Competition winners have gone on to partner with food retailers and suppliers to integrate their technology into our industry’s business operations or create strong consumer experiences,” said FMI President and CEO Leslie G. Sarasin. “Candidly, I must say that I never know which one of our finalists will be selected by Midwinter attendees to be our winner, but the innovation presented on that stage is impressive, and it showcases how the food industry has nurtured and embraced tech leadership and innovation.”
This year, conference attendees will hear pitches from three competition finalists: Swish, BetterBasket and Genuin.
Swish
Adam Stave spent the first part of his career building some of the first digital retail media programs — “back when the idea of placing an ad on a retailer’s website was a tough sell,” said Stave, who has also spent nearly 20 years in shopper marketing.
“For years, I heard the same frustration from brand leaders: sampling works, but the way it’s done is archaic,” Stave said. “It’s operationally heavy, difficult to scale and nearly impossible to measure. Despite being one of the most effective ways to drive trial, sampling hadn’t kept pace with the rest of the marketing ecosystem.”
Once grocery ecommerce began to see rapid adoption and more consumers kept building digital baskets, retailers had rich first-party data and brands had new ways to reach consumers along their shopping journeys.
“That shift made it obvious—sampling no longer needed to be a blunt, in-store tactic. It could be targeted, automated and measurable, just like digital media,” Stave said. “If we can build great technology to show the right person the right ad at the right time—and make it easy to buy, manage and measure—why couldn’t we do the same with a physical product?”
That question led to the creation of Swish – a programmatic sampling technology that modernizes sampling by applying adtech principles to real products, using the merchandise already in retailers’ stores to deliver a brand experience directly into a consumer’s grocery order.
“Retailers and brands need solutions that don’t just create exposure, but move real product and generate lasting demand,” Stave explains. “While Swish activates through online grocery orders, the impact extends far beyond ecommerce. Swish turns product trial into measurable performance, delivering growth that lasts beyond a single transaction.”
Swish’s integration with ecommerce platform partners including Mercatus and Upshop help make the activation of programmatic sampling fast and simple, Stave said. However, even when an integration doesn’t already exist, Swish is designed to be light lift for IT teams and simple to operate day-to-day.
“There’s no store-level execution, no added burden on fulfillment teams and no ongoing program management required from the retailer,” Stave said. “In short, Swish delivers incremental revenue and brand value without asking retailers to take on additional complexity — something that’s critical in today’s resource-constrained environment.”
Genuin
According to Matt Wurst, the biggest pain point in grocery today isn’t logistics or pricing.
“It’s relevance at the moment of decision,” Wurst said. “Grocers are investing heavily in retail media, automation and AI, yet most shopper experiences still break at the point where discovery, trust and action should connect. Shoppers are overwhelmed with choices, retailers are fighting shrinking margins and brands are struggling to influence outcomes without pushing people offsite or into third-party platforms they don’t control.”
Genuin addresses this by turning owned-and-operated channels and touchpoints into video-powered environments, bringing short-form video storytelling to retailer-owned digital channels.
“We enable our customers to aggregate and highlight trusted, shoppable, engaging video content from brands, creators and communities directly into their own apps, websites and now even AI-driven interfaces,” Wurst explains. “The result is longer engagement, better conversion and new media revenue without sacrificing control or shopper trust.”
The platform does not require a massive IT overhaul or store operation disruption, Wurst said, noting that it integrates with just five lines of code, a lightweight software development kit or embed model.
“Our generative AI tools can also create resonant, compelling, actionable videos based on product shots and surface that content at the right time,” Wurst said. “Our AI handles content curation, personalization, moderation and optimization automatically. We built Genuin specifically for teams that want speed, flexibility and measurable outcomes without adding headcount or complexity.”
During a time when retailers are working to bridge technological advancements with human connection, Genuin is focused on amplifying the human experience, Wurst said, by allowing retailer and brands to capture knowledge from associates, local experts and creators and apply it in short-form video where shoppers are engaging.
“That could mean an associate explaining how to prepare a meal, a local expert highlighting seasonal products or a trusted creator sharing why a product matters. Instead of replacing human connection, we extend it across digital, in-store and AI-driven experiences,” Wurst said. “Shoppers don’t just transact. They learn, discover and build trust. Whether it’s instant delivery or an immersive aisle, the experience feels connected, contextual and human. That’s where loyalty and long-term value are built.”
BetterBasket
Leon Zhang and his team at BetterBasket want to make buyers’ and pricing teams’ lives easier by using agentic AI to help grocers price more precisely.
“Operations, and especially pricing and promos, are still reactive. By the time grocers see the impact of weather, seasonality or cost shifts, the margin is already gone,” Zhang said. “BetterBasket uses agentic AI that sits on a retailer’s sales, cost and competitive data and proactively responds to real-world events, continuously recommending where to hold price, invest or pull back. The result is sharper pricing where it matters, protected price where it doesn’t and more margin unlocked without adding operational work.”
BetterBasket replaces spreadsheet analysis and one-off reporting by pulling competitive data, sales and costs into a single system, allowing agentic AI to handle ongoing analysis.
“Instead of chasing data and reacting after the fact, teams get clear, prioritized recommendations in one place, so they spend less time firefighting and more time making confident decisions,” Zhang explains. “Trust and loyalty are built when shoppers feel prices are fair, consistent and explained, not random.”
In addition, BetterBasket’s technology preserves the human workforce by eliminating busywork from buyers and store teams, allowing frontline associates to focus on helping customers rather than dealing with price issues and fluctuations, Zhang said.
“Shoppers now move across more modalities than ever: delivery, pickup, quick-commerce and in-store, and each one creates different expectations around price, speed and value,” Zhang said. “Our platform helps retailers price intelligently across those modalities by understanding when consistency builds trust and when differentiation actually makes sense, using real demand and competitive signals rather than blanket rules. That way, no matter how a shopper engages, prices feel intentional and fair — which is what ultimately builds trust and loyalty across channels.”
Stave, Wurst and Zhang will take the stage at the FMI Midwinter Executive Conference on Wednesday, Jan. 21, from 1:30 to 3:00 p.m. PT where they will present their pitches to industry executives who will then cast their votes for their favorite presentation. The competition winner will appear at the event’s General Session on Friday morning, Jan. 23.
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