Artificial intelligence (AI) is emerging as a valuable tool for food and beverage makers looking to bolster front-end innovation. Manufacturers, restaurants, ingredient suppliers, flavor houses and more are leveraging insights from machine learning to get closer to consumer trends and market more nuanced propositions. New food and flavor concepts traditionally have been ascribed to culinary experts, chefs and product developers, said Ron Harnik, vice president of marketing at Tastewise, an Israel-based AI food and beverage platform. Translating an idea into a finished product can take months or even years. "The processes that are set up to take products to market simply aren't built to be quick and accurate enough to reflect how fast consumers are changing," Mr. Harnik said.

It used to be that artificial intelligence was limited to the realms of science fiction and movies like 2001: A Space Odyssey or Terminator's Skynet. Today, artificial intelligence is real -- think Alexa or Google Home -- and tools and applications putting it to use are emerging at a rapid clip in many fields, including agriculture and food. Artificial intelligence is an umbrella term for machine learning but its concepts are used in related fields, including robotics and natural language processing. It certainly figured prominently at this year's Global Food Innovation Summit in Italy, which I was able to attend with the support of a bursary from the Canadian Farm Writers' Federation professional development fund. "It will take resources to tackle problems we face like climate change, food security and hunger," said Zachary Fritze, CEO and co-founder of ag tech analytics startup Cultovo, during a presentation at the conference.

This is embarrassing to admit, but whenever I go to a Thai restaurant, I just order tofu phad thai. Yes, that is totally generic, but I don't get to eat out that often, so I don't want to take a chance on something that I might really dislike. I know what I'm getting with the phad thai, so I settle. It's that settling for the same-ole that Dishq is looking to improve by using artificial intelligence. Based in Bangalore, India, Dishq provides APIs for food service companies like restaurants, corporate cafeterias or food delivery services, so those companies can implement AI-powered, customized food suggestions for their customers.