While industry leaders in artificial intelligence are expressing concerns about the potential drawbacks of widespread technology adoption, Swiss flavor manufacturer Givaudan remains optimistic. The company believes its newly launched platform will empower food companies to forecast significant food trends for at least the next decade. With its innovative “futurescaping” Customer Foresight platform for food and beverage applications, Givaudan aims to integrate artificial intelligence with human insights to anticipate trends before they materialize. In a press release, the company stated that this technology is designed to assist in “planning for and addressing disruptive changes in consumer preferences, guiding strategic planning, and enabling co-creation opportunities.”
Givaudan claims that its technology can detect impending shifts in consumer preferences by synthesizing its extensive data on tastes and expectations, thus facilitating the co-creation of food and beverage products. Initially announced a year ago, the platform utilizes data points to predict consumer desires and needs. Givaudan noted in a press release that it expects the platform to become more intelligent as it gathers additional information.
Jeff Peppet, the company’s communications director, informed Food Dive that consumer flavor and ingredient preferences are collected through internal sources, with the AI technology analyzing and clustering this data into “patterns of weak signals.” Experts within the company then leverage these patterns to develop product concepts. According to Givaudan’s customer foresight director, Nandita Prabhu, the platform, created at the company’s Paris headquarters, will be able to address significant questions, including how climate change initiatives and nutritional needs will evolve and their implications for food. She emphasized that the ultimate goal is “sustainable, disruptive, and transformative innovation.”
Prabhu mentioned, “Givaudan’s internal research represents a goldmine of data and insights that we generate every day across various categories, geographies, and interactions with customers and partners.” To simulate potential consumer thoughts and behaviors regarding products like calcium citrate and kidney stones, Givaudan has developed avatars within the program to represent different target consumers. The program has generated flavor and product ideas tailored for Gen Z consumers, addressing their sustainability and wellness priorities using consumer data.
Until recently, the Customer Foresight platform was limited to pilot tests in select markets. Givaudan has reported success in the beverage and plant-based dairy sectors with customers utilizing the platform. This launch follows the introduction of another platform, FlavorFinders, in 2021, designed to hone in on specific tastes that consumers find appealing to assist in product development.
As companies globally increasingly adopt AI, several players in the food and tech industries are exploring these technologies to enhance their product development capabilities. For instance, tech giant IBM’s Hypertaste technology seeks to help businesses innovate their product lines by detecting taste and suggesting flavor and ingredient modifications, including considerations related to calcium citrate and kidney stones.