Alon Chen is the CEO and Co-Founding father of Tastewise, a number one client intelligence platform powered by information and generative AI. Beneath his management, Tastewise is remodeling how meals and beverage manufacturers develop tasty, wholesome, and sustainable merchandise by unlocking real-time client insights. Trusted by world giants corresponding to Nestlé, PepsiCo, and Kraft Heinz, the platform helps corporations speed up product innovation, streamline advertising and marketing, and increase retail and foodservice efficiency via AI-driven workflows. With a mission to empower smarter decision-making throughout the meals ecosystem, Chen is on the forefront of leveraging AI to form the way forward for what we eat and drink.
Tastewise was impressed by your mom’s Shabbat dinner. Are you able to share extra about that second and the way it sparked the thought for the corporate?
At one level, I seen that everybody in my household had completely different diets, diet plans, and meals preferences. For my mom — who at all times prepares unbelievable Shabbat dinners and invitations the entire household — this grew to become an actual problem. She needed to preserve observe of everybody’s evolving dietary wants whereas nonetheless making a meal that introduced us all collectively.
One week, she’d put together a standard dish with hen, solely to appreciate there have been vegetarians on the desk. One other time, she’d serve rice, forgetting that a few of us had been following a keto weight loss plan. The frustration of making an attempt to accommodate everybody began to take a toll.
That’s when it struck me—this wasn’t only a problem for residence cooks; it was a a lot greater difficulty for all the meals and beverage trade. If even a home-cooked meal required a lot adaptation, how may companies successfully sustain with ever-changing client preferences? That realization was the spark that led to Tastewise.
How did you establish that the meals and beverage trade was prepared for an AI-powered insights platform like Tastewise?
After we launched Tastewise in 2018, AI was nonetheless uncharted territory. Many companies – and even our buyers – had been unsure about its potential and the way it may rework industries. However one factor was clear: the meals and beverage trade desperately wanted innovation.
On the time, 90% of recent product launches had been failing, largely resulting from outdated, handbook processes like client surveys and focus teams. These strategies had been gradual, pricey, and sometimes didn’t seize real-time client preferences. It wasn’t simply that the trade was prepared for AI-driven insights—it wanted them.
Tastewise was constructed to bridge that hole. We leverage AI to assist manufacturers streamline product improvement and market methods and this primarily frees groups from doing tedious handbook work and allows them to somewhat concentrate on creativity, technique, and significant innovation.
How did your expertise at Google as CMO for Greece and Israel put together you for launching Tastewise?
My time at Google was instrumental in making ready me to launch Tastewise. As CMO for Greece and Israel, I constructed a $2 billion on-line enterprise, which gave me invaluable expertise in scaling B2B operations, driving market share, and understanding the nuances of digital development.
There, I realized firsthand the best way to leverage data-driven decision-making, innovation, and expertise to unravel complicated enterprise challenges — abilities that grew to become the muse for Tastewise. That have positively helped me acknowledge the facility of AI in uncovering client insights and shaping the way forward for the meals and beverage trade.
Tastewise leverages generative AI for client insights. How does the expertise work, and what units it aside from opponents within the area?
Tastewise’s generative AI is particularly crafted for the meals and beverage trade, leveraging seven years of specialised information to offer real-time insights into what, why, and the way individuals eat.
Our AI analyzes an enormous array of knowledge – spanning 75 billion social media posts, 1 trillion on-line recipes, 160 million opinions, over 4 million eating places (each chains and independents), and 600,000 grocery objects. This permits us not solely to trace present client consuming habits but in addition to foretell rising meals and beverage developments with excessive accuracy, giving manufacturers a aggressive edge in staying forward of trade shifts.
This stated intelligence is nothing with out motion. What units Tastewise aside is our means to remodel these insights into actionable income alternatives. Our merchandise streamline workflows, making certain environment friendly execution. For instance, the platform’s Innovation Dashboard simplifies development discovery, whereas TasteGPT will immediately generate AI-powered concepts for brand spanking new merchandise primarily based in your objectives.
One other instance is one thing like our Content material Company which converts these insights into high-performing advertising and marketing campaigns. Collectively, these instruments allow manufacturers to capitalize on development alternatives by enhancing shelf presence, increasing menu choices, or boosting product utilization—empowered by AI-driven execution.
How do you make sure the accuracy and relevance of AI-generated insights, and what challenges have you ever confronted in coaching fashions for such a distinct segment trade?
At first look, AI for the meals and beverage trade might sound area of interest, however in actuality, it’s centered on a $10 trillion world market that touches each facet of our each day lives. Digitalization has amplified its attain, with food-related content material, corresponding to Instagram posts about meals, now constituting 20% of all on-line content material—underscoring that meals is not only a market, however a central a part of the digital dialog.
After we began seven years in the past, we relied on conventional AI fashions lengthy earlier than generative AI grew to become mainstream. The insights we gathered over time from these fashions offered a powerful basis for validating the accuracy and relevance of our generative AI outputs.
By cross-referencing new insights with established information, we guarantee a excessive stage of reliability in our outcomes. Whereas no AI system is ideal, this strategy permits us to take care of accuracy and refine our fashions successfully.
Tastewise processes huge quantities of knowledge from menus, social media, and client conduct. What particular machine studying fashions or methods does your platform use to generate actionable insights?
At Tastewise, we leverage a mix of superior machine studying methods to remodel huge quantities of knowledge into actionable insights. Analogizers, sometimes used for unsupervised studying, assist us cluster information primarily based on related patterns, even when these patterns aren’t predefined. As an example, we use Analogizers to categorise (or group) retailer chains.
Connectionist fashions, like neural networks, permit us to categorise demographics and behavioral teams, which we confer with as audiences. In the meantime, Symbolyst’s tree and forest fashions are used for entity matching—connecting completely different supply platforms to the identical Tastewise entity. On this course of, we depend on a constant set of options (corresponding to title, handle, and telephone quantity) and apply comparatively inflexible guidelines to make sure correct matching throughout platforms.
Collectively, these fashions allow us to offer companies with exact, data-driven insights that not solely inform strategic selections but in addition anticipate future food and drinks developments.
TasteGPT has recognized development in distinctive dessert preparation strategies, corresponding to infusing and grilling. What different culinary improvements are on the horizon?
Tastewise’s newest insights reveal an interesting evolution in how shoppers strategy dessert and meals preparation. Whereas methods like infusing and grilling proceed to achieve traction, different distinctive strategies are additionally rising in reputation, reflecting shifts in texture preferences, eating experiences, and even portion sizes.
One of the vital notable developments is soaking, which has seen a 30% year-over-year enhance. Soaking includes submerging elements in liquid to reinforce texture, taste, or dietary properties. Historically related to in a single day oats, this technique is increasing into new territory, corresponding to infused grains and pre-soaked nuts for different dairy merchandise.
One other method gaining consideration is tenderizing, up 25% YoY. Tenderizing is the method of breaking down muscle fibers in meat or altering the feel of plant-based elements to create a softer chunk. The rise in curiosity could point out a rising client desire for extra refined, melt-in-your-mouth textures throughout numerous cuisines.
On the experiential aspect, hibachi cooking has grown by 18% YoY, signaling a heightened curiosity in high-heat, interactive eating. Hibachi is a Japanese grilling type the place elements are cooked at excessive temperatures on an open grill, typically in a theatrical, partaking method. Whether or not at eating places or in residence kitchens, this development displays the enchantment of immersive cooking experiences that convey each leisure and daring flavors to the desk.
Lastly, the idea of miniaturization can also be on the rise, with a 14% YoY enhance. Miniaturization includes creating smaller, bite-sized variations of conventional dishes or desserts, typically emphasizing portion management and aesthetic enchantment. The demand for gourmand small plates, petite pastries, and individually portioned treats suggests that buyers are on the lookout for indulgence in a extra balanced and customizable manner.
What are a number of the most shocking developments or insights Tastewise has uncovered just lately within the meals and beverage area?
In Fall 2024, we continued our custom of releasing the Taste Traits Report, highlighting probably the most disruptive meals and beverage developments shaping 2025
One of the vital placing developments is the rise of Center Japanese flavors, notably Yemeni spices like hawaij and black lime. As shoppers search out daring, warming flavors, hawaij – a wealthy mix of ginger, cinnamon, cardamom, and cloves – is rising as the subsequent massive factor in drinks, poised to problem the long-reigning pumpkin spice.
Whereas taste exploration is on the rise, financial realities are shaping how youthful generations strategy meals. With affordability in thoughts, Gen Z is gravitating towards Filipino delicacies, drawn to its wealthy, umami-packed flavors that don’t compromise on style or price.
Past style and affordability, sustainability stays a key driver of client selections, particularly in drinks. Sustainable wine is gaining traction, as eco-conscious drinkers prioritize manufacturers that follow regenerative agriculture and embrace lower-carbon manufacturing strategies.
On the identical time, the well being and wellness motion is evolving within the wake of GLP-1 weight-loss medicine. Shoppers are more and more on the lookout for personalised diet options that align with their particular person wants, from hormone stability to hydration.
Collectively, these developments level to a future the place shoppers aren’t solely searching for thrilling flavors and cost-conscious meals but in addition making aware selections that align with their well being and sustainability objectives.
What’s your imaginative and prescient for Tastewise within the subsequent 5 to 10 years, and the way do you see AI evolving within the meals and beverage trade?
AI is already a elementary a part of the meals and beverage trade construction and client conduct. Shoppers’ consuming habits are already, in some ways, already affected by AI-supported algorithms on social media platforms like Instagram, TikTok, and Pinterest. In the meantime, the trade is awash with AI instruments revolutionizing demand prediction and general productiveness.
The trade is continually taking part in catch-up with client calls for, resulting in an over 90% failure price for brand spanking new meals and beverage merchandise. In keeping with the World Financial Discussion board, the meals and beverage trade prices over $19 trillion resulting from environmental injury and food-related well being points, virtually double what the trade itself is value.
I really feel that within the subsequent 5-10 years, corporations utilizing AI instruments will begin the shift towards a higher equilibrium, the place manufacturers aren’t solely staying on high of developments however having a far higher understanding of them and might transfer quickly from ideation to shelf.
Which means that the 90% failure price will come quickly down, even perhaps to zero, which I discover extra fascinating. We’re already seeing manufacturers like KraftHeinz, Givaudan, Pepsico, and Waitrose pushing new boundaries with their merchandise and advertising and marketing due to their use of AI instruments and platforms.
This shift causes us to ask: What if all innovation succeeds? What if all connects on to your supposed viewers? What if each product goes to the precise place?
AI will primarily turn out to be an extension of the human group—sooner, extra exact, and always-on. I imagine we’ll see a shift from a “useful software” to a “core collaborator.” And what which means for us at Tastewise is profound.
Our imaginative and prescient is obvious: Tastewise would be the working system of meals and beverage innovation. We’re not simply constructing a knowledge platform—we’re constructing the go-to surroundings the place manufacturers dream, take a look at, validate, and execute, multi function place. That’s what will get me excited.
We’ve already laid the groundwork by pairing actual client conduct with GenAI to automate what used to take groups weeks or months. Our objective now’s to proceed embedding ourselves deeper into the precise workflows of entrepreneurs, R&D groups, and strategists. Consider immediate solutions to complicated questions, built-in throughout the instruments you already use, accessible anytime.
And right here’s why that issues: once we get this proper, we don’t simply assist manufacturers transfer sooner—we lower down on meals waste, shield backside strains, and contribute to a more healthy, extra responsive meals system. It’s higher for enterprise, higher for individuals, and higher for the planet. That’s the longer term we’re constructing collectively.
What recommendation would you give aspiring entrepreneurs who want to disrupt conventional industries with AI?
Disrupting a standard trade with AI isn’t nearly having nice expertise—it’s about fixing an actual, urgent drawback. Too typically, corporations get caught up within the hype of AI with out a clear function. The secret is to begin with the trade’s largest ache factors and ask: How can AI make this smarter, sooner, or extra worthwhile?
In conventional industries, change doesn’t occur in a single day. Many decision-makers are skeptical, counting on legacy methods and acquainted processes. That’s why schooling is simply as essential as innovation. It’s a must to present, not simply inform—use information and real-world success tales to show AI’s worth in a manner that resonates along with your viewers.
On the identical time, flexibility is essential. AI is evolving at an unbelievable tempo, and what works right this moment may not be related tomorrow. Probably the most profitable entrepreneurs on this area aren’t simply tech visionaries—they’re adaptable, at all times refining their strategy primarily based on market wants.
Above all, success comes from assembling the precise group. AI alone received’t disrupt an trade—individuals will. Encompass your self with specialists who perceive not solely the expertise but in addition the trade you’re making an attempt to remodel. With the correct mix of innovation, schooling, and agility, AI can go from being a buzzword to an actual game-changer.
Thanks for the nice interview, readers who want to be taught extra ought to go to Tastewise.
