Alon Chen is the CEO and Co-Founding father of Tastewise, a number one shopper intelligence platform powered by information and generative AI. Underneath his management, Tastewise is remodeling how meals and beverage manufacturers develop tasty, wholesome, and sustainable merchandise by unlocking real-time shopper insights. Trusted by world giants equivalent to Nestlé, PepsiCo, and Kraft Heinz, the platform helps firms speed up product innovation, streamline advertising, and enhance retail and foodservice efficiency by way of 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 totally 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 hold 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 rooster, solely to comprehend there have been vegetarians on the desk. One other time, she’d serve rice, forgetting that a few of us have been following a keto food regimen. The frustration of attempting to accommodate everybody began to take a toll.
That’s when it struck me—this wasn’t only a problem for dwelling cooks; it was a a lot larger subject for the complete meals and beverage business. If even a home-cooked meal required a lot adaptation, how may companies successfully sustain with ever-changing shopper preferences? That realization was the spark that led to Tastewise.
How did you establish that the meals and beverage business was prepared for an AI-powered insights platform like Tastewise?
Once we launched Tastewise in 2018, AI was nonetheless uncharted territory. Many companies – and even our traders – have been unsure about its potential and the way it may remodel industries. However one factor was clear: the meals and beverage business desperately wanted innovation.
On the time, 90% of latest product launches have been failing, largely on account of outdated, handbook processes like shopper surveys and focus teams. These strategies have been gradual, expensive, and sometimes did not seize real-time shopper preferences. It wasn’t simply that the business 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 permits them to moderately 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 getting 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 know-how to unravel advanced enterprise challenges — expertise that grew to become the muse for Tastewise. That have positively helped me acknowledge the ability of AI in uncovering shopper insights and shaping the way forward for the meals and beverage business.
Tastewise leverages generative AI for shopper insights. How does the know-how work, and what units it other than opponents within the house?
Tastewise’s generative AI is particularly crafted for the meals and beverage business, 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 information – spanning 75 billion social media posts, 1 trillion on-line recipes, 160 million critiques, over 4 million eating places (each chains and independents), and 600,000 grocery objects. This permits us not solely to trace present shopper consuming habits but in addition to foretell rising meals and beverage traits with excessive accuracy, giving manufacturers a aggressive edge in staying forward of business shifts.
This stated intelligence is nothing with out motion. What units Tastewise aside is our potential 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 pattern discovery, whereas TasteGPT will immediately generate AI-powered concepts for brand spanking new merchandise based mostly in your targets.
One other instance is one thing like our Content material Company which converts these insights into high-performing advertising 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 business?
At first look, AI for the meals and beverage business may appear 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, equivalent 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.
Once 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 robust basis for validating the accuracy and relevance of our generative AI outputs.
By cross-referencing new insights with established information, we guarantee a excessive degree of reliability in our outcomes. Whereas no AI system is ideal, this method permits us to keep up accuracy and refine our fashions successfully.
Tastewise processes huge quantities of information from menus, social media, and shopper habits. What particular machine studying fashions or strategies does your platform use to generate actionable insights?
At Tastewise, we leverage a mixture of superior machine studying strategies to remodel huge quantities of information into actionable insights. Analogizers, usually used for unsupervised studying, assist us cluster information based mostly on comparable patterns, even when these patterns are usually not predefined. As an example, we use Analogizers to categorise (or group) retailer chains.
Connectionist fashions, like neural networks, enable us to categorise demographics and behavioral teams, which we discuss with as audiences. In the meantime, Symbolyst’s tree and forest fashions are used for entity matching—connecting totally different supply platforms to the identical Tastewise entity. On this course of, we depend on a constant set of options (equivalent to identify, tackle, 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 foods and drinks traits.
TasteGPT has recognized development in distinctive dessert preparation strategies, equivalent to infusing and grilling. What different culinary improvements are on the horizon?
Tastewise’s newest insights reveal a captivating evolution in how customers method dessert and meals preparation. Whereas strategies like infusing and grilling proceed to realize traction, different distinctive strategies are additionally rising in recognition, reflecting shifts in texture preferences, eating experiences, and even portion sizes.
One of the vital notable traits is soaking, which has seen a 30% year-over-year improve. Soaking entails submerging components in liquid to boost texture, taste, or dietary properties. Historically related to in a single day oats, this technique is increasing into new territory, equivalent to infused grains and pre-soaked nuts for various dairy merchandise.
One other approach 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 components to create a softer chew. The rise in curiosity might point out a rising shopper 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 model the place components are cooked at excessive temperatures on an open grill, typically in a theatrical, participating method. Whether or not at eating places or in dwelling kitchens, this pattern displays the attraction of immersive cooking experiences that deliver each leisure and daring flavors to the desk.
Lastly, the idea of miniaturization can also be on the rise, with a 14% YoY improve. Miniaturization entails creating smaller, bite-sized variations of conventional dishes or desserts, typically emphasizing portion management and aesthetic attraction. 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 method.
What are a few of the most shocking traits or insights Tastewise has uncovered not too long ago within the meals and beverage house?
In Fall 2024, we continued our custom of releasing the Taste Developments Report, highlighting probably the most disruptive meals and beverage traits shaping 2025
One of the vital hanging traits is the rise of Center Jap flavors, notably Yemeni spices like hawaij and black lime. As customers hunt down daring, warming flavors, hawaij – a wealthy mix of ginger, cinnamon, cardamom, and cloves – is rising as the following 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 method 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 shopper decisions, particularly in drinks. Sustainable wine is gaining traction, as eco-conscious drinkers prioritize manufacturers that observe 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. Customers are more and more on the lookout for customized diet options that align with their particular person wants, from hormone steadiness to hydration.
Collectively, these traits level to a future the place customers are usually not solely in search of thrilling flavors and cost-conscious meals but in addition making conscious decisions that align with their well being and sustainability targets.
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 business?
AI is already a elementary a part of the meals and beverage business construction and shopper habits. Customers’ 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 business is awash with AI instruments revolutionizing demand prediction and general productiveness.
The business is continually enjoying catch-up with shopper calls for, resulting in an over 90% failure fee for brand spanking new meals and beverage merchandise. In keeping with the World Financial Discussion board, the meals and beverage business prices over $19 trillion on account of environmental harm and food-related well being points, virtually double what the business itself is value.
I really feel that within the subsequent 5-10 years, firms utilizing AI instruments will begin the shift towards a larger equilibrium, the place manufacturers are usually not solely staying on prime of traits however having a far larger understanding of them and might transfer quickly from ideation to shelf.
Which means the 90% failure fee will come quickly down, even perhaps to zero, which I discover extra attention-grabbing. We’re already seeing manufacturers like KraftHeinz, Givaudan, Pepsico, and Waitrose pushing new boundaries with their merchandise and advertising 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 meant viewers? What if each product goes to the suitable place?
AI will primarily grow to be an extension of the human group—quicker, extra exact, and always-on. I consider we’ll see a shift from a “useful instrument” to a “core collaborator.” And what meaning 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 functional place. That’s what will get me excited.
We’ve already laid the groundwork by pairing actual shopper habits with GenAI to automate what used to take groups weeks or months. Our aim now’s to proceed embedding ourselves deeper into the precise workflows of entrepreneurs, R&D groups, and strategists. Consider prompt solutions to advanced questions, built-in throughout the instruments you already use, accessible anytime.
And right here’s why that issues: after we get this proper, we don’t simply assist manufacturers transfer quicker—we lower down on meals waste, shield backside traces, 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 long run we’re constructing collectively.
What recommendation would you give aspiring entrepreneurs who want to disrupt conventional industries with AI?
Disrupting a standard business with AI isn’t nearly having nice know-how—it’s about fixing an actual, urgent downside. Too typically, firms get caught up within the hype of AI and not using a clear goal. The bottom line is to begin with the business’s greatest ache factors and ask: How can AI make this smarter, quicker, 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 training is simply as vital as innovation. You need to present, not simply inform—use information and real-world success tales to show AI’s worth in a method 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 won’t be related tomorrow. Probably the most profitable entrepreneurs on this house aren’t simply tech visionaries—they’re adaptable, at all times refining their method based mostly on market wants.
Above all, success comes from assembling the suitable group. AI alone gained’t disrupt an business—individuals will. Encompass your self with specialists who perceive not solely the know-how but in addition the business you’re attempting to remodel. With the right combination of innovation, training, and agility, AI can go from being a buzzword to an actual game-changer.
Thanks for the good interview, readers who want to be taught extra ought to go to Tastewise.
