ArtificiaI intelligence (AI) is on the rise across business in general. But the foodservice industry may be another matter, as it isn't usually considered to be the fastest sector when it comes to adopting new technology. Whilst the industry's disruption by the gig economy did indicate new pathways, the recent stock flotation of food-delivery startup Deliveroo has found itself beset by the same ESG issues over workers' rights that have long dogged the likes of Uber and Lyft. In such cases, AI may be the game-changer that other sectors see it as; a GlobalData report from 2020 predicts the global AI platform market will be worth $52bn within three years. While it may not solve the sort of labour disputes faced by Deliveroo, AI-powered automation is what foodservice should be taking note of, and in some cases already is.

At this year's Genius of Things (GoT) event in Boston, IBM announced that we are working with Golden State Foods to embrace two big opportunities for growth and change in the food services industry. Golden State Foods are using Watson IoT to assist fleet management and safety for their 2,000 trucks, and creating connected restaurants in over 125,000 locations. To say that Golden State Foods operate on a large scale is something of an understatement. They are one of the largest diversified suppliers to the food service industry, servicing around 125,000 restaurants in over 60 countries from their 50 locations, and producing 400,000 hamburger patties per hour. Many of the restaurants they supply are quick serve and rely on speedy, safe and quality food production and delivery to meet their customers' expectations.