AI at the dinner table: How smart tech is reshaping the future of food

From farm to fork, the global food and beverage industry is undergoing a transformation — one that’s not being driven by chefs or marketers alone, but by AI-powered systems behind the scenes.

AI is no longer a futuristic concept for food giants. It’s already helping to forecast supply chain disruptions, design new recipes, reduce waste and improve sustainability — all while supporting personalized consumer experiences across markets. At Nestlé, we’ve seen firsthand how these technologies can deliver on both purpose and performance.

But amidst the excitement, here’s a reality check: AI isn’t magic. And for every promising application, there’s a risk of overreach — from ethical concerns in data use to the temptation of blindly automating creative decisions. For CIOs and CTOs, the challenge now is less about proving the value of AI, and more about architecting the culture, capabilities and systems that allow it to scale responsibly.

From prediction to precision

The food industry has always dealt with uncertainty: harvest yields, logistics bottlenecks, fluctuating consumer preferences. AI enables companies to transform guesswork into foresight. At Nestlé, we’re using AI to anticipate demand patterns more accurately than ever before — adjusting production and inventory dynamically in ways that weren’t possible with traditional planning tools. For instance, we use AI to estimate time of arrival to destination ports of shipping containers and ML/AI to generate statistical forecasts and improve our demand plan accuracy. 

We’re also deploying AI in formulation development, where machine learning models analyze years of R&D data to accelerate the ideation and creation of products tailored to evolving health, taste and nutrition expectations. These aren’t just experiments. They’re live pipelines that are delivering results.

But operational efficiency isn’t enough. For AI to make a real impact, it has to serve broader goals — such as sustainability.

AI for a healthier planet

Feeding the world sustainably is the food industry’s defining challenge. And while regenerative agriculture and packaging innovation play a huge role, AI can be a force multiplier.

We’re exploring how AI models can optimize carbon tracking across complex agricultural supply chains, helping us make smarter sourcing decisions and reduce emissions at scale. In manufacturing, AI-powered vision systems are minimizing waste and improving energy usage, contributing to our company-wide environmental commitments.

Yet even as we embed AI into the backbone of operations, we remain clear-eyed: no technology should replace the values that define great food. Authenticity, transparency and trust still matter. And that means AI must enhance, not erase, the craftsmanship and humanity of our industry.

The hidden risks of over-automation

One of the most seductive promises of generative AI is speed: Instantly generating campaign content, copy or product concepts. But fast doesn’t always mean better.

Food is cultural. It’s emotional. And what resonates in one region may fall flat in another. That’s why we believe in human-in-the-loop systems that allow local teams to adapt global solutions, and why we caution against letting algorithms dictate creative direction without oversight.

There are also deeper concerns around AI bias in product testing and consumer research, especially when datasets don’t reflect the full diversity of global consumers. For multinational food brands, responsible scaling of AI must include a commitment to equity and representation at the data level.

The CIO’s role: Architect and advocate

In this new era, the CIO is no longer just a technology partner. You are a growth enabler, a data guardian and increasingly an orchestrator between the different enablers of digital transformation (future-ready people capabilities, end-to-end operating model, services, data and technology). 

AI success isn’t just about leveraging great models. It’s about nurturing talent, governance and experimentation in ways that align with your brand’s purpose and appetite for risk. It’s about an integrated layer that spans across our functional domains and departments in an end-to-end manner across our business value flows. 

We believe that food companies that treat AI as a core capability (not a bolt-on) will ultimately outperform. But this isn’t a race to automate the most. It’s a lot about reimagination and the ability to adopt new ways of working.  

Looking ahead

We’re still in the early chapters of AI’s role in food and beverage. But the trajectory is clear: personalization, sustainability and efficiency are converging and AI is the engine behind that convergence.

Now is the time for CIOs and CTOs to step up…not as gatekeepers, but as builders of bold, ethical and scalable systems that bring this transformation to life.

Because in the end, AI won’t just shape the future of food. It will shape the future of how we nourish the world. 

Greg Kahn is CEO of GK Digital Ventures and co-founder of AI Trailblazers. He advises Fortune 500 companies and top entrepreneurs on AI and emerging tech strategy, with a focus on revenue growth, investment and responsible innovation. A frequent speaker at global forums like CES, Cannes Lions, SXSW, and the World Economic Forum, Greg is known for moderating high-stakes discussions with policymakers, investors and Fortune 100 executives. His thought leadership has been featured in the Wall Street Journal, New York Stock Exchange, Reuters and NBC News. Greg also founded the Internet of Things Consortium, leads the Emerging Tech Exchange and serves on the boards of Montclair Film and IRTS. He is a Leadership Member of the Ad Council focused on ethical tech adoption.

Luca Dell’Orletta is the global head of tech innovation and enterprise architecture for the Nestlé Group. In this position, he is on a mission to accelerate Nestlé’s digital transformation, with speed, agility and scale through tech-powered innovation, enterprise architecture and real-time process intelligence, resulting in continuous competitive advantage for the group. Nestlé is the world’s largest food and beverage company, with 2,000+ brands, 280,000 employees and present in 186 countries. Luca has been recently awarded Top AI Leader and TOP 100 Future CIO, recognizing “exceptional leadership, skills, critical and creative thinking within their teams and organizations.”

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