• For the first time, Warren Buffett won't be hosting Berkshire Hathaway's shareholder meeting.
• New CEO Greg Abel will take center stage this weekend and field hours of questions instead.
• Attendees predicted a more sober Q&A and a smaller gathering, but still expected a good time.

Berkshire Hathaway is about to hold its iconic shareholder meeting — without Warren Buffett as host.

Tens of thousands of people are expected to descend upon Buffett's hometown of Omaha this weekend for a gathering dubbed "Woodstock for Capitalists."

As usual, they can shop for Squishmallows plushies and Fruit of the Loom sweatshirts, picnic at Nebraska Furniture Mart, hunt for deals on jewelry at Borsheims, take part in the Brooks Running 5K, and watch a live Q&A with Berkshire's top brass.

However, Buffett won't be sitting on stage, taking questions while munching See's Candies and drinking Coca-Cola. He doesn't want to steal the spotlight from Greg Abel, who succeeded him as Berkshire's CEO at the start of this year.

Business Insider will be on the ground reporting from the conference, and before jumping on a flight to Omaha, we asked Berkshire experts making the trip what they're expecting this weekend.

The Abel effect

Buffett is renowned for his wit, folksy wisdom, and willingness to hold forth on virtually any topic, from marriage and nuclear weapons to politics and corporate malfeasance.

In stark contrast, Abel isn't a household name and hasn't shared much about himself or his views on non-Berkshire subjects. That could make for a more sober and restrained Q&A.

"Greg will be responding to questions in a businesslike manner but without Warren Buffett's humor and personal stories," David Kass, a finance professor at the University of Maryland, told Business Insider.

Brian Gongol, a Buffett superfan and Berkshire shareholder for nearly 20 years, praised Abel for upholding Buffett's core principles. But he said the new boss "can't help but sound more like an accountant than like a founder."

The Q&A is "likely to feel a lot like when one very capable artist performs a cover version of someone else's song," Gongol said. "The lyrics and the melody will stay the same, but the interpretation will give the audience something new."

Eric Schleien, who said he's attended every Berkshire bash since 2006, told Business Insider that Buffett's absence won't feel "like the headliner canceled."

"It's more like the band is still playing, and now the lead guitarist is finally getting to step forward," said the founder and CEO of Granite State Capital Management and host of "The Intelligent Investing Podcast."

A more hardcore gathering

The Berkshire meeting simply won't have the same appeal with neither Buffett nor his late business partner, Charlie Munger, in the hot seat this year.

Gongol predicted that locals and devotees will still make the pilgrimage to Omaha, but there will be fewer international travelers and "people we used to be able to talk into coming along for the ride on the basis of Buffett's star power."

Yet he said that Berkshire recognizes the value of its unique shareholder culture and how it directly influences Berkshire's prospects, and may well lean on "clever marketing work" to draw in crowds.

His fellow Buffett fans might also attend "just for the chance of capturing a glimpse of the legend from across the room," Gongol added.

"The people who show up this year are going to be the real ones," Schleien said. "You have to actually care about Berkshire's business and culture to come out for Greg Abel. I'd expect fewer people but a higher quality crowd."

Bigger than Buffett

Kass, the finance professor, and Larry Cunningham, the director of the University of Delaware's Weinberg Center and the author of several books about Berkshire, said they expected around 25,000 to 30,000 people to show up — down from the peak figure of around 40,000.

But Cunningham was still optimistic about the city's vibe this weekend.

"So much subculture has grown around Berkshire wholly apart from Warren, Omaha will still be abuzz," he said.

He quoted a line from his 2014 book, Berkshire Beyond Buffett: "Warren's greatest achievement was creating an organization larger than himself."

• Coca-Cola and Svedka are using AI to enhance holiday and Super Bowl ads, speeding up content creation.
• Companies like Mondelēz and Blue Chip use AI to test concepts, saving time and improving strategies.
• The tech can help CPG firms work faster, but risks include AI slop in campaigns.

Coca-Cola's holiday ad and Svedka's Super Bowl commercial share more in common than promoting a beverage — both were generated with the help of AI.

The technology is catching on at consumer goods companies, with marketing leaders adding AI to their processes on both the creative and strategic sides.

As a result, assets and campaigns are coming to fruition faster than they could without AI.

Before AI, it could take Mondelēz International up to 10 weeks — from concept to production — to spin up a six- to eight-second social media video for its Chips Ahoy! character "Chip," said Jennifer Mennes, VP and global head of digital marketing and strategy at Mondelēz International.

Now, the marketing team can prompt AI and create a video in less than five minutes. After various checks by human members of the team, the total process might take days.

The biggest opportunities aren't necessarily in "big flashy campaigns," like Super Bowl spots, Mennes said. Instead, AI is helping CPGs quickly produce a greater volume of text, headlines, social content, and lifestyle imagery. As firms pump out more content, they could risk putting out AI slop and turning off consumers with AI-generated material. But so far, the efficiency gains are proving worthwhile as companies and agencies save weeks of time, especially on high-volume work and strategy.

"It doesn't seem that exciting," Mennes said. "But it's actually driving impact."

Testing and learning with AI

AI can play a role in parts of the marketing process that are invisible to consumers, such as idea generation. Johnny Rohrbach, founder of global partnerships and operations at Silverside AI, said marketing teams and their partners can "come up with different directions until the cows come home." His AI lab works with several CPGs, including Coca-Cola, on its holiday campaigns.

Focus group testing is another AI use case. Sonja Evans, VP of business intelligence and strategy at Blue Chip Marketing Worldwide, said her agency partners with Waldo.fyi, an AI company, to create digital twins of a brand's target consumers, using detailed demographics and purchase history. The team then presents creative ideas to this synthetic audience.

"We can talk to them just like we would be talking to a consumer," Evans said. Based on the feedback, the agency whittles down the ideas before presenting them to real consumers. The feedback from digital and virtual consumers "is shockingly similar," she said.

Blue Chip — which has worked on campaigns for Bob's Red Mill, Emerald Nuts, and Panera Bread — also uses AI to create what's known as a boardomatic. This is essentially an animated version of a spot with voiceover, script, and motion, but without the time, costs, or hired talent needed for a shoot.

The agency can test multiple animated spots with consumers to gauge their reactions "before we even spend a dollar on production," Evans said. The agency then uses the feedback to decide which version goes into full production.

Avoiding the trap of AI slop

Today, consumers demand more content, creating a cycle in which brands must appear in their feeds more often to stay top of mind, Rohrbach said. Marketing budgets don't always expand to keep pace with consumer trends. He added that AI can help bridge the gap, allowing marketing teams to do more with the money they're allocated.

There's a fine line when it comes to volume, though.

"If the spots feel like garbage and if you're just pumping out content because you can, then you're going to turn off the consumer," Mennes said, adding that a human is always in the loop at Mondelēz. The CPG company sees AI as additive and enhancing how it already connects with consumers, not replacing workflows.

"Nothing goes into the market without rigorous approval," Mennes said.

For food brands, especially, imagery needs to look real and authentic, Evans said. "People are very quick to call out when something looks AI."

Consumers have blasted brands for AI slop, with many criticizing AI-generated Super Bowl ads as uninspired or low-quality. Rohrbach, whose AI lab partnered with Svedka parent company Sazerac to produce its AI Super Bowl spot, said brands need to ensure they're not putting out content that's irrelevant, poorly executed, or "a little bit tone deaf." His lab's Coca-Cola holiday ad was among the spots that drew criticism, but he said the ad performed "exceptionally well" according to internal and external testing.

The strong performance may have been partly driven by the attention it received for using AI, even though social media sentiment was largely negative. In fact, the spot was the most talked-about Christmas ad of 2025.

"I'm super proud of that ad," Rohrbach said. He added that Coca-Cola is "very much on the vanguard" of AI experimentation, and CPGs as a whole are embracing the technology due to the high demand for content.

In fact, a BCG study from February found that seven in 10 CPG marketing leaders expect GenAI to help them work faster — although only 13% said the tech is fully integrated into marketing workflows. The report said the figures point to a maturity gap. Evans said bigger brands may have larger budgets to experiment with AI, while midmarket companies are contending with tariff and inflation pressures, making them more focused on business goals than on AI experimentation.

Mennes said major CPGs are "well on their journey" and "rapidly embracing this space." Plus, she's noticed a change among her CPG peers. For the first time in her career, they're cross-sharing ideas, comparing challenges related to hallucinations, and gut-checking solutions with one another.

"It's actually refreshing," Mennes said. "If we can help each other out on that, it just accelerates our ability to transform our organizations."

Uma das maiores engarrafadoras da Coca-Cola adquiriu o controle de outra, criando uma gigante do engarrafamento na África em uma transação avaliada em US$ 2,6 bilhões.

A Coca-Cola HBC comprou 75% da Coca-Cola Beverages Africa, que pertencia à Coca-Cola Co. e à Gutsche Family Investments, informaram as empresas na terça-feira (21). As ações da Coca-Cola HBC caíram até 4,7% em Londres após a empresa cancelar uma recompra de ações para ajudar a financiar o negócio.

A transação cria a segunda maior engarrafadora da Coca-Cola e mostra que a empresa está se afastando do negócio de engarrafamento.

Neste ano, a Coca-Cola também vendeu uma participação em suas operações de engarrafamento na Índia.

A família Gutsche, da África do Sul, está sendo paga em dinheiro e ações, o que significa que terá uma participação de 5,5% na Coca-Cola HBC.

Philipp Hugo Gutsche, de 84 anos, chefe da empresa familiar, atuou no conselho da Coca-Cola Beverages Africa, e a família afirmou que mantetá sua participação pela holding.

A Coca-Cola está buscando caminhos para superar a queda na demanda por refrigerantes.

Seus investimentos em engarrafamento representaram 13% da receita no ano passado, ante 52% quase uma década antes. Com a conclusão do negócio na África no próximo ano, esse número deve cair para cerca de 5%, informou a Coca-Cola.

Estratégia da Coca-Cola

A estratégia da Coca-Cola ao longo dos anos tem se baseado na terceirização de partes do negócio que exigem capital e mão de obra intensiva, como o engarrafamento.

Sob licença da Coca-Cola, que fornece o concentrado e define a estratégia, seus parceiros independentes fabricam as bebidas, as embalam, alugam caminhões, distribuem os produtos e os comercializam.

A compradora, a Coca-Cola HBC, pretende explorar as oportunidades de crescimento da marca na África e planeja uma listagem secundária na Bolsa de Valores de Joanesburgo.

“É um voto de confiança na África do Sul e no continente africano”, disse a diretora financeira Anastasis Stamoulis em uma teleconferência.