Alon Chen is the CEO and Co-Founding father of Tastewise, a number one client intelligence platform powered by knowledge and generative AI. Beneath his management, Tastewise is reworking how meals and beverage manufacturers develop tasty, wholesome, and sustainable merchandise by unlocking real-time client insights. Trusted by international giants akin to Nestlé, PepsiCo, and Kraft Heinz, the platform helps corporations 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 observed that everybody in my household had totally different diets, vitamin plans, and meals preferences. For my mom — who at all times prepares unimaginable Shabbat dinners and invitations the entire household — this grew to become an actual problem. She needed to maintain 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 program. 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 your entire meals and beverage trade. If even a home-cooked meal required a lot adaptation, how might 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?
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 might 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On the time, 90% of latest product launches had been failing, largely as a consequence of outdated, handbook processes like client surveys and focus teams.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 relatively give attention to 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 discovered firsthand easy methods to leverage data-driven decision-making, innovation, and expertise to resolve 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 expertise work, and what units it other than rivals within the area?
Tastewise’s generative AI is particularly crafted for the meals and beverage trade, leveraging seven years of specialised knowledge to offer real-time insights into what, why, and the way folks 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 gadgets. This permits us not solely to trace present client consuming habits but additionally to foretell rising meals and beverage developments with excessive accuracy, giving manufacturers a aggressive edge in staying forward of trade shifts.
This mentioned 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, guaranteeing environment friendly execution. For instance, the platform’s Innovation Dashboard simplifies development discovery, whereas TasteGPT will immediately generate AI-powered concepts for brand new merchandise primarily based 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 might sound area of interest, however in actuality, it’s centered on a $10 trillion international market that touches each facet of our day by day lives. Digitalization has amplified its attain, with food-related content material, akin 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 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 stage 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 information 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 mixture of superior machine studying methods to remodel huge quantities of information into actionable insights. Analogizers, sometimes used for unsupervised studying, assist us cluster knowledge primarily based on related patterns, even when these patterns are usually not predefined. For 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 seek advice from 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 (akin to title, 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 additionally anticipate future food and drinks developments.
TasteGPT has recognized progress in distinctive dessert preparation strategies, akin 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 methods like infusing and grilling proceed to achieve 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 developments is soaking, which has seen a 30% year-over-year enhance. 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, akin 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 substances to create a softer chunk. The rise in curiosity might point out a rising client desire for extra refined, melt-in-your-mouth textures throughout numerous 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 model 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 development displays the attraction of immersive cooking experiences that carry each leisure and daring flavors to the desk.
Lastly, the idea of miniaturization can be on the rise, with a 14% YoY enhance. Miniaturization entails creating smaller, bite-sized variations of conventional dishes or desserts, typically emphasizing portion management and aesthetic attraction. The demand for connoisseur small plates, petite pastries, and individually portioned treats suggests that buyers are in search of indulgence in a extra balanced and customizable approach.
What are a number of the most stunning developments 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 developments shaping 2025
One of the vital putting developments 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 subsequent 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 value.
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 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 medication. Customers are more and more in search of customized vitamin options that align with their particular person wants, from hormone steadiness to hydration.
Collectively, these developments level to a future the place customers are usually not solely in search of thrilling flavors and cost-conscious meals but additionally 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. 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 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 fee for brand new meals and beverage merchandise. In accordance with the World Financial Discussion board, the meals and beverage trade prices over $19 trillion as a consequence of environmental harm and food-related well being points, nearly double what the trade itself is price.
I really feel that within the subsequent 5-10 years, corporations utilizing AI instruments will begin the shift towards a larger equilibrium, the place manufacturers are usually not solely staying on prime of developments however having a far larger understanding of them and might transfer quickly from ideation to shelf.
Because of this the 90% failure fee will come quickly down, maybe even 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 appropriate place?
AI will primarily turn out to be an extension of the human crew—sooner, extra exact, and always-on. I imagine 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 an information platform—we’re constructing the go-to atmosphere the place manufacturers dream, check, 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’s to proceed embedding ourselves deeper into the precise workflows of entrepreneurs, R&D groups, and strategists. Consider prompt 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 minimize down on meals waste, shield 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 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 downside. Too typically, corporations get caught up within the hype of AI and not using a clear goal. The hot button is to start out 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 training is simply as vital as innovation. You need to present, not simply inform—use knowledge and real-world success tales to show AI’s worth in a approach that resonates together with your viewers.
On the identical time, flexibility is essential. AI is evolving at an unimaginable tempo, and what works immediately 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 method primarily based on market wants.
Above all, success comes from assembling the appropriate crew. AI alone received’t disrupt an trade—folks will. Encompass your self with consultants who perceive not solely the expertise but additionally the trade you’re attempting to remodel. With the correct mix of innovation, training, 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.
