Artificial intelligence is revolutionising the food and beverage industry by translating abstract flavour concepts into tangible realities. Recent advancements in Japan showcase how brands leverage AI to infuse ideas and emotions into product development, creating unique culinary experiences. This innovation not only enhances consumer engagement but also underscores AI’s role in driving sustainable food production and aligning with consumer preferences. However, building trust in AI-assisted choices remains imperative for ongoing industry transformation, says GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company.

Earlier this year, Japanese tech giant NEC Corporation, in partnership with Kimuraya Sohonten Co. and Abema TV, pioneered an innovative approach to food creation, leveraging AI technology to craft bread flavours aimed at captivating new demographics, particularly younger consumers.

By analysing cultural cues from TV and social media, they have created innovative offerings like “First Date” and “Mutual Love,” infusing emotions into culinary experiences. This pioneering endeavor showcases AI’s potential to revolutionise food innovation by bridging the gap between sensory and emotional realms.

Katrina Diamonon, Principal Consumer Analyst at GlobalData, comments: “More brands are taking greater liberties with the concept of flavour, by using intangible elements such as ideas, experiences, and moods to describe flavour. This recent example from Japan takes the consumption experience beyond the sensorial and into the emotional realm. We have already seen this kind of innovation from more progressive beverage companies, but its expansion into bakery suggests that a wider array of food and drink brands will explore more whimsical and abstract flavours.

“It also underscores the wider impact of AI technology on consumer goods innovation. Not only is it making food production smarter and more sustainable; it is also changing how food products are conceived and designed, aligning them even more closely with consumer preferences. Significantly, we are already seeing a degree of confidence in AI-assisted food and drink choices; however, consumer trust in such technologies needs to continue to grow.”

A survey* conducted by GlobalData found that one third (33 %) of global consumers would be very or quite likely to trust recommendations from a virtual assistant (e.g. using AI) to buy food and drinks.

Diamonon concludes: “The notion of translating human emotions into tangible flavours may seem far-fetched but is certainly not beyond the realm of possibility for AI, which has only scratched the surface in terms of its ability to use predictive analytics to transform ideas into reality.

“As more brands make the move into the metaverse, flavour has the potential to become a more abstract term as physical and digital worlds merge. AI will prove invaluable in helping brands develop flavours and scents that bring an emotion to life.”

*GlobalData 2023 Q4 Consumer Survey – Global, published in December 2023, sample size – 21,000

Coca-Cola has launched a new limited-edition Coca-Cola 3000 Zero Sugar within the Coca-Cola Creations platform, with the help of artificial intelligence (AI). The AI, in cooperation with humans, helped create both the taste and the design of the can, as Coca-Cola tries to identify what the year 3000 would look like for beverages. It is not just Coca-Cola using AI in the soft drinks category. Unilever, owner of PepsiCo, has developed AI tools to optimise various aspects of its business operations. Against this backdrop, the usage of AI in the soft drinks industry is set to grow for the discovery of new flavours and to enhance the efficiency of business operations, says GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company.

Coca-Cola started with a core question to its customers: What would the year 3000 look like? Consumers were asked how they saw Coca-Cola in the year 3000 via the Coca-Cola Creations platforms. The company then used AI to analyse all the responses to create the framework for the futuristic product based on how people see the future through emotions, ambitions, colours and flavours.

Dragos Dumitrachi, Analyst at GlobalData, comments: “Based on these inputs from consumers and its knowledge of beverage trends, the AI created a unique packaging and flavour profile for a carbonate in the year 3000. The packaging format is colourful, with a mix of spherical shapes blended in purple, pink, and blue colours with a pixelated logo, and the AI primarily perceived the future as being sugar-free. This is to be expected as low-calorie carbonates recorded a 39 % growth between 2015 and 2023 globally, with this growth set to continue over the next five years, as consumers increasingly focus on their health and wellness. According to the latest global survey^* by Global Data, 81 % of respondents consider that it is nice to have or essential for a product to be good for physical fitness/health.”

Global Data expects the AI market to grow from USD 81 billion in 2022 to USD 90 billion by 2030, with a 35 % compound annual growth rate (CAGR) during 2022-2030. Recent progress in machine learning (ML) on the back of improved algorithms (e.g., Google’s AlphaGo, OpenAI’s GPT-3/ChatGPT, Tesla’s AutoPilot) and increasing computing power have enabled AI to become more widely used in the soft drinks industry.

The AI-driven applications developed by Unilever leverage neural networks and the GPT API is aimed at enhancing the company’s ability to respond to the evolving needs of its consumer base and broader market dynamics. On top of that, Unilever is using AI to identify alternative ingredients that can reinforce the resilience of their supply chains, making their products more sustainable and cost-efficient, and streamlining the number of ingredients without impacting the effectiveness or quality of the products.

Dragos concludes: “The AI market in the soft drinks industry is still in its infancy; the rules and laws that will govern it are still under debate. Global Data is forecasting that the use of AI for supply chain, administrative issues, and the discovery of new flavours and packaging formats in the soft drinks industry will only grow.”

^*GlobalData 2023 Q2 Consumer Survey – Global, with 21,595 respondents, published November 2022