Alon Chen is the CEO and Co-Founding father of Tastewise, a number one client intelligence platform powered by knowledge and generative AI. Underneath his management, Tastewise is reworking how meals and beverage manufacturers develop tasty, wholesome, and sustainable merchandise by unlocking real-time client insights. Trusted by world giants resembling Nestlé, PepsiCo, and Kraft Heinz, the platform helps firms speed up product innovation, streamline advertising and marketing, 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 concept for the corporate?
At one level, I seen that everybody in my household had completely different diets, vitamin plans, and meals preferences. For my mom — who all the time prepares unimaginable 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 had been following a keto food regimen. 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 dwelling cooks; it was a a lot greater situation for the whole 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 identify that the meals and beverage trade 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 – had been unsure about its potential and the way it may remodel industries. However one factor was clear: the meals and beverage trade desperately wanted innovation.
On the time, 90% of latest product launches had been failing, largely resulting from outdated, guide processes like client surveys and focus teams. These strategies had been gradual, expensive, 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 growth and market methods and this primarily frees groups from doing tedious guide work and allows them to somewhat deal with 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 progress.
There, I realized firsthand how you can leverage data-driven decision-making, innovation, and know-how to unravel complicated enterprise challenges — expertise that grew to become the inspiration for Tastewise. That have positively helped me acknowledge the ability 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 know-how work, and what units it aside from rivals within the area?
Tastewise’s generative AI is particularly crafted for the meals and beverage trade, leveraging seven years of specialised knowledge to supply real-time insights into what, why, and the way folks 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 traits 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 capability to rework these insights into actionable income alternatives. Our merchandise streamline workflows, guaranteeing environment friendly execution. For instance, the platform’s Innovation Dashboard simplifies pattern discovery, whereas TasteGPT will immediately generate AI-powered concepts for brand 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 and marketing campaigns. Collectively, these instruments allow manufacturers to capitalize on progress 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 may appear area of interest, however in actuality, it’s centered on a $10 trillion world market that touches each facet of our day by day lives. Digitalization has amplified its attain, with food-related content material, resembling 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 supplied a robust basis for validating the accuracy and relevance of our generative AI outputs.
By cross-referencing new insights with established knowledge, we guarantee a excessive degree of reliability in our outcomes. Whereas no AI system is ideal, this method 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 strategies does your platform use to generate actionable insights?
At Tastewise, we leverage a mix of superior machine studying strategies to rework huge quantities of knowledge into actionable insights. Analogizers, sometimes used for unsupervised studying, assist us cluster knowledge based mostly on related patterns, even when these patterns usually are not predefined. As an illustration, we use Analogizers to categorise (or group) retailer chains.
Connectionist fashions, like neural networks, enable us to categorise demographics and behavioral teams, which we seek advice from 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 (resembling identify, tackle, and telephone quantity) and apply comparatively inflexible guidelines to make sure correct matching throughout platforms.
Collectively, these fashions allow us to supply companies with exact, data-driven insights that not solely inform strategic choices but in addition anticipate future food and drinks traits.
TasteGPT has recognized progress in distinctive dessert preparation strategies, resembling infusing and grilling. What different culinary improvements are on the horizon?
Tastewise’s newest insights reveal a captivating evolution in how shoppers 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.
Probably the most notable traits is soaking, which has seen a 30% year-over-year improve. Soaking entails submerging substances in liquid to boost texture, taste, or dietary properties. Historically related to in a single day oats, this technique is increasing into new territory, resembling infused grains and pre-soaked nuts for different 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 substances to create a softer chunk. The rise in curiosity could point out a rising client choice for extra refined, melt-in-your-mouth textures throughout varied cuisines.
On the experiential facet, hibachi cooking has grown by 18% YoY, signaling a heightened curiosity in high-heat, interactive eating. Hibachi is a Japanese grilling type the place substances are cooked at excessive temperatures on an open grill, typically in a theatrical, partaking method. Whether or not at eating places or in dwelling kitchens, this pattern displays the enchantment 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 enchantment. The demand for connoisseur small plates, petite pastries, and individually portioned treats suggests that customers are on the lookout for indulgence in a extra balanced and customizable means.
What are a number of the most stunning traits or insights Tastewise has uncovered lately within the meals and beverage area?
In Fall 2024, we continued our custom of releasing the Taste Developments Report, highlighting probably the most disruptive meals and beverage traits shaping 2025
Probably the most placing traits is the rise of Center Japanese flavors, notably Yemeni spices like hawaij and black lime. As shoppers hunt down daring, warming flavors, hawaij – a wealthy mix of ginger, cinnamon, cardamom, and cloves – is rising as the following large 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 client decisions, 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 similar time, the well being and wellness motion is evolving within the wake of GLP-1 weight-loss medication. Shoppers are more and more on the lookout for personalised vitamin options that align with their particular person wants, from hormone stability to hydration.
Collectively, these traits level to a future the place shoppers usually are 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 trade?
AI is already a basic 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 consistently taking part in catch-up with client calls for, resulting in an over 90% failure charge for brand new meals and beverage merchandise. In accordance 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, nearly double what the trade itself is value.
I really feel that within the subsequent 5-10 years, firms utilizing AI instruments will begin the shift towards a better equilibrium, the place manufacturers usually are not solely staying on prime of traits however having a far better understanding of them and may transfer quickly from ideation to shelf.
Which means that the 90% failure charge 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 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 meant viewers? What if each product goes to the correct place?
AI will primarily turn into an extension of the human crew—quicker, extra exact, and always-on. I consider we’ll see a shift from a “useful instrument” 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 setting 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 client conduct with GenAI to automate what used to take groups weeks or months. Our purpose now could be to proceed embedding ourselves deeper into the precise workflows of entrepreneurs, R&D groups, and strategists. Consider instantaneous 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 quicker—we reduce down on meals waste, defend backside strains, and contribute to a more healthy, extra responsive meals system. It’s higher for enterprise, higher for folks, and higher for the planet. That’s the long run we’re constructing collectively.
What recommendation would you give aspiring entrepreneurs who need to disrupt conventional industries with AI?
Disrupting a standard trade 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 function. The secret’s to begin with the trade’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 essential as innovation. It’s important to present, not simply inform—use knowledge and real-world success tales to show AI’s worth in a means that resonates together with your viewers.
On the similar time, flexibility is essential. AI is evolving at an unimaginable tempo, and what works right now may not be related tomorrow. Probably the most profitable entrepreneurs on this area aren’t simply tech visionaries—they’re adaptable, all the time refining their method based mostly on market wants.
Above all, success comes from assembling the correct crew. AI alone gained’t disrupt an trade—folks will. Encompass your self with specialists who perceive not solely the know-how but in addition the trade you’re making an attempt to rework. 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 study extra ought to go to Tastewise.