Givaudan has developed Consumer Foresight, a new tool that aims to help its customers co-create and innovate. This'futurescaping' platform will leverage big data, artificial intelligence and Givaudan's'deep expertise' of the food and beverage sector. It is a step beyond the trend forecasting models of today, Taste & Wellbeing President Louie D'Amico believes. "Most trend forecasting models largely focus on understanding the past and the present. Customer Foresight will be more predictive, with an ability to create potential future scenarios of what should be possible tomorrow to shape the future of food," he told FoodNavigator.

In the last year, the scent industry has undergone a quiet but significant transformation thanks to artificial intelligence: In August 2018, fragrance house Firmenich announced a partnership with Swiss university Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne to create a digital lab in order to study AI for fragrance product development. In October 2018, another major fragrance house, Symrise, worked with IBM to develop an AI and machine learning perfumer machine called Phylra. This past April, fragrance company Givaudan launched AI platform Carto to assist perfumers in scent creation. And finally, in July, fragrance subscription startup Scentbird launched a sub-brand called Confessions of a Rebel that used AI and customer data and reviews in the creation of its four debut fragrances. Historically, perfume creation has toed the line between art and science.