CHICAGO, June 8, 2026 — Bold predictions of an AI revolution are near routine in the food business. A select group of manufacturers, marketers and food-away-from-home operators heard firsthand last week what that seismic change might actually look like.
Representatives of those and other aspects of the business offered one real-life example after another of how the technology is changing their processes for developing, marketing and selling new food and beverage products. The examples ranged from Cinnamon Pebbles, an extension of the popular kids’ cereal line, to a chocolate cake that could fit into blank space on at least a half-dozen chains’ menus.
Presenters of the case studies agreed the primary breakthrough benefits are the speed and efficiency with which they could now develop and introduce a mass-market product.
“What really amazes me is how much faster we can do things,” said keynote speaker Peter Hall, president of Kraft Heinz’s Elevation Business Unit. "We now have speed and scale.
We can push boundaries that we never could before.”
Presenters at the Tastewise Food Growth Summit 2026 also stressed the enhanced chances of success AI can bring to the development process.
One cited the example of a manufacturer looking to develop a new breakfast item specifically for grade schools. She explained that AI could enable the company to survey virtually every morning product being served at that moment in school cafeterias. The exercise, which can be completed in minutes, provides hardcore, real-time evidence of a menu gap while simultaneously determining if the new item will be redundant to what’s already in the market.
Others noted the consumer reality check that AI can provide, instantly canvassing social media and other reflections of public preferences to assess potential customers’ likely reaction to a product. That insight can save days or months of research time, a huge savings given that a new consumer product hits the market about every two minutes, according to Kevin Wilson, CEO of the Esrock marketing agency.
Plus, as he noted in a session subtitled, “Consumer Research at the Speed of Culture,” the data is a measure of what the mass market is thinking now, not when a survey was fielded six months ago at a five-figure cost.
An illustration of the discovery benefits was offered by Renee Howarth, director of culinary research and development for Acxion Foodservice, the foodservice broker. She related the example of a customer that wanted to add a chocolate cake to its product line.
“We first needed to figure out what people think about chocolate cake,” Howarth explained.
Plenty of services scrape and monitor information posted in social media about a particular product or product category, she continued. But there’s not the analysis AI provides.
“If there’s so much chattering online, you might’ve missed the boat there,” Howarth observed. “We have to do less trend-chasing.”
The AI market assessment showed there was still ample market room for a new product entry that met preferences consumers may not even realize as draws. In the Acxion example, that meant a cake with a layer of raspberry jam and a sprinkling of roasted pumpkin seeds on top.
AI also helped Acxion and its unnamed client identify what restaurant chains would be likely buyers of the new dessert because of gaping white space on their menus.
Tastewise used the term “synthetic operator panel" for the canvass of practical opportunities.
Howarth addressed the question that regularly arises in any discussion of AI: Will its capabilities render human judgment obsolete? Her answer was an emphatic no.
She explained that every step of the development process merited evaluation by chefs, who looked in detail at the production feasibility of the item. “Those who depend on AI have to learn when to put it down and to pick up a knife,” said Horwath. “AI and culinary are better together.”
“The big challenge I have is how do I manage my talent,” said Kraft Heinz’s Hall.
He explained that he views the salespeople under him as either farmers or hunters.
The farmers tend to be very focused on account administration—making sure prospects know about upcoming opportunities, what deadlines they have to hit, whether their payments are up to date, and so on.
The hunters, in contrast, are aggressive business seekers, constantly looking for opportunities.
The goal, he indicated, is turning more farmers into hunters by shifting administrative tasks to AI.
The bigger goal, he suggested, is using the technology to whet and satisfy his executive team’s curiosity, a discovery process that could lead to blue oceans of opportunity.
“Businesses with curious leaders are going to be the winners,” said Hall.
More practical ideas are coming
Tastewise themed its conference, “The Agentic Future of Food,” a reference to AI’s evolution into a practical decision-making tool with widespread applicability. No longer is the technology just a Google search on steroids, a point reinforced during the single-day event by the number of practical uses that were highlighted.
That theme will be carried over to Go2MarketEdge (G2ME), a three-day immersion in the practical uses of AI, hosted in California’s Silicon Valley by IFMA The Food Away from Home Association. The conference will provide an array of case histories that illustrate how AI is being used today in the food-away-from-home business.
Presented in collaboration with Tastewise and its e-commerce partner, Cut + Dry, the event will teach FAFH companies how to set up their own synthetic customer panels like the one that was used by Acxion.
G2ME attendees will also get a preview of what’s next in AI and the virtual opportunities of e-commerce through visits to the brainstorming facilities of Amazon, Google, and Plug and Play, a tech incubator.
G2ME is scheduled for Aug. 4-6 in Silicon Valley. More information is available here.