Those who rely on data to make an important business decision know the adage, “Garbage in, garbage out.” Data is plentiful for those in the food world, but it is a challenge to select the correct data, understand what the information means, and how it relates to your specific situation.
Enter Tastewise, an Israeli market intelligence platform that harvests a vast—and we mean vast–array of structured and unstructured data and turns it into meaningful insights. Working with Nestle, Mars, PepsiCo, and others, Tastewise recently upped its game by adding AI capability using ChatGPT to its functionality.
In a recent interview with The Spoon, Alon Chen, Tastewise Co-Founder, and CEO explained the company’s origins. After working for Google, Chen ran into Eyal Gaon, who became co-founder and CTO. The two men discussed the gap between bringing new products to market and eventual success.
“We found very early on that 90% of innovation–tens of thousands of new products that come out to the market every single year– fail, right? CPG companies and others win up; they innovate a lot less and focus on acquisitions because they can’t keep up. We took a deeper look at this and said, why is that? “
The answer became evident to the two men. Companies, especially in the food area, focused on retail data, which becomes stale quicker than a week-old banana. “Retail data is not good for the food industry because if something is successful and you see that on sales data, you are already 18 months too late,” commented Chen.
Which led to a two-part solution—the underpinnings of the Tastewise platform. Step one is harvesting data from myriad sources ranging from restaurant menus to recipe sites on the Web. The trick of turning raw information into actionable insights is to take structured (quantitative) and unstructured (qualitative) data and offer users easy-to-understand answers. For example, Tastewise can tell a CPG customer what customers are enjoying the latest food fad. The details of those results can go deep into the location and demographics of those trends and the foodies behind them.
“We call it the fast-moving consumer data,” Chen observed. “Fast moving consumer data, which is a whole new category that we think that is evolving today and is now being integrated into the different workflows and the tasks nig companies have in place. Tastewise is a layer of data that brings consumer preferences and needs into the food brand and the food manufacturing life cycle.”
Taking its SaaS data platform to a new level, Tastewise has added AI functionality to its product line. Called TasteGPT, users can ask such questions as:
- What product ideas are the best fit for my Gen Z consumers?
- What concepts should I invest my R&D budget in?
- Where should I launch my new beverage product first?
- Where is my competition under-represented, and what can I do about it?
- What should the focus of my next marketing campaign be?
“AI influences how consumers choose what to eat and drink in countless ways. Consumers are also more informed than ever, and they expect us to meet their needs accurately, specifically, and on-demand,” Chen said at the March launch of the new AI capability. “TasteGPT can now help companies get closer to their consumers by capturing the pulse of culinary, nutritional, and dietary needs, and to stay competitive in a rapidly changing market.”
“Artificial intelligence is the only way to mitigate a lack of credible data by enabling organizations to make sense of vast amounts of data,” said Gaon. “With relevant AI tools, data turns into meaningful insights that drive better decision-making and innovation in real-time.”
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