Council Post: How Big Data And AI Are Turning The Food And Beverage Industry On Its Head

Digital disruption is affecting nearly every industry, from financial services to healthcare -- and the food and beverage sector is no exception. Historically, flavor profiles, trends and new food products have largely been attributed to chefs and product developers, and it would take months or years before an idea could be translated into a product and introduced to the market. In more recent years, however, the answer to the next big food or flavor trend has had less to do with humans and more with the power of big data and artificial intelligence (AI), which learns and mimics human behavior by collecting and analyzing millions of data sets concurrently. So how does harnessing technology translate into the next flavor or trend? As an example, spice company McCormick partnered with IBM in 2019 to leverage AI to predict new flavor combinations.