Generative AI is bringing innovations to the food industry and people are eating them up – literally.
Tasty app users can have real-time conversations with Botatouille, an AI-powered chatbot that answers every day cooking questions, and even suggests meals based on what’s in someone’s refrigerator.
Instacart launched a GenAI-based tool that answers the age-old question of what’s for dinner, lunch, or breakfast?
Tacos are another AI hot spot. In a limited campaign, Dallas-based Velvet Taco turned to ChatGPT-4 for new taco recipes. Meanwhile, a GenAI-based automation tool greets drive-through customers at some Del Taco locations, effortlessly taking orders, upsizing drinks, and recommending meal add-ons.
These were among the AI-fueled innovations that Cathy Burns, CEO of the International Fresh Produce Association (IFPA), shared at the group’s recent global conference. In a fascinating moment during her opening keynote, Burns was transformed into an AI-generated avatar, sounding eerily like the human on stage in front of the audience. Appropriately, her avatar told attendees that McKinsey researchers estimated GenAI will add the equivalent of $2.6 trillion to $4.4 trillion in annual value to the global economy across over 60 industries.
GenAI is agricultural growth driver
There was no escaping GenAI at this conference. During a notable expert session, Dr. Elliott Grant, CEO of Mineral, talked about this technology’s potential to reshape agriculture. He said that giving people the ability to interact with software and have it respond to unstructured questions in a natural way with new knowledge creation has been a profound moment of change. GenAI’s ability to augment human-driven skills has just begun in the agribusiness industry.
“We’re seeing how an AI tool can conduct quality inspections for produce in fields, coolers, distribution centers, and stores with consistent unbiased accuracy day in and out,” said Dr. Grant. “Companies are no longer constrained by how many trained people they have. GenAI is not about doing the same jobs we did yesterday. It’s about thinking differently about my work and workflow because I’m enabled by AI…I can feed quality inspection data back to the grower or retailer. It’s not human versus machine. It’s realizing that I can do things radically differently and better.”
Unlocking agribusiness opportunities with GenAI
Acknowledging that it’s difficult to anticipate the future, Grant suggested the agribusiness industry adopt a systemic view of GenAI to rethink everything much like the electric motor revolutionized manufacturing from steam power to assembly line production in the last century.
“What if any farmer could have the expertise of the best quality inspectors, agronomists, pest control advisors, and others in their pocket at any time?” he said. “Skills like perception, reasoning, and knowledge discovery are well-suited to GenAI.”
Like every industry, using GenAI in agribusiness requires quality comprehensive data to ethically train models against unintended consequences and hidden bias. Grant saw the technology initially assuming tedious and repetitive data look-up tasks, along with work that relies on organizing significant and diverse amounts of information such as yield forecasting.
“The opportunity is to use GenAI to make predictions that are as good as or probably better than humans,” said Dr. Grant. “The combination of both humans and AI is incredibly powerful…We also must think ahead to make sure humans have rewarding well-paid jobs in a world where technology can do some things better than us.”
Sustainable agribusiness from AI
As growers explore innovations such as regenerative farming, Grant said that GenAI could share relevant data across the supply chain to reduce risks and increase sustainability. The same applies to improving varietal discovery, crop rotation, fertilization, and irrigation decisions.
“AI makes sense of traceability data from the farm, distribution center, and store,” he said. “The ability to unpack the drivers of agriculture outcomes including flavor, shelf life, quality, and sustainability is an opportunity for AI…For example, how can GenAI shorten timeframes to breed more climate resilient, high-yield crops? Yield is a complex combination of genetics, environment, and management practices. It’s a multi-dimensional problem well suited to GenAI.”
Know and name your GenAI sources
The last word on AI from this event is from Steve Wozniak, co-founder of Apple. During a keynote chockful of insider tech stories, his summary caveat was that people have a responsibility to regulate every new technology.
“If you receive information, you should be told which AI it came from, how that AI was trained, and for the information you received, what was the question asked of AI,” said Wozniak. “AI should have references showing where the information came from that a person can check on. AI can be a reporter, but it should have a human editor.”