Alon Chen is the CEO and Co-Founding father of Tastewise, a number one client intelligence platform powered by information and generative AI. Below 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 similar 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 concept for the corporate?
At one level, I observed that everybody in my household had completely different diets, diet plans, and meals preferences. For my mom — who at all times prepares unbelievable Shabbat dinners and invitations the entire household — this turned an actual problem. She needed to preserve monitor of everybody’s evolving dietary wants whereas nonetheless making a meal that introduced us all collectively.
One week, she’d put together a conventional dish with hen, solely to understand 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 plan. 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 greater concern for all the 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 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 might rework industries. However one factor was clear: the meals and beverage trade desperately wanted innovation.
On the time, 90% of recent product launches had been failing, largely attributable to outdated, handbook processes like client surveys and focus teams. These strategies had been sluggish, pricey, and sometimes did not 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 handbook work and permits them to reasonably 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 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 how one can leverage data-driven decision-making, innovation, and expertise to resolve complicated enterprise challenges — expertise that turned the inspiration for Tastewise. That have undoubtedly 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 house?
Tastewise’s generative AI is particularly crafted for the meals and beverage trade, leveraging seven years of specialised information to supply real-time insights into what, why, and the way folks eat.
Our AI analyzes an unlimited array of information – spanning 75 billion social media posts, 1 trillion on-line recipes, 160 million evaluations, over 4 million eating places (each chains and independents), and 600,000 grocery gadgets. This enables us not solely to trace present client consuming habits but in addition to foretell rising meals and beverage tendencies 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 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 development discovery, whereas TasteGPT will immediately generate AI-powered concepts for brand spanking new merchandise primarily based in your objectives.
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 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 world market that touches each facet of our each day lives. Digitalization has amplified its attain, with food-related content material, similar 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 turned mainstream. The insights we gathered over time from these fashions offered a powerful 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 take care of accuracy and refine our fashions successfully.
Tastewise processes huge quantities of information from menus, social media, and client habits. 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 remodel huge quantities of information into actionable insights. Analogizers, usually used for unsupervised studying, assist us cluster information primarily based on comparable patterns, even when these patterns will not be predefined. For example, we use Analogizers to categorise (or group) retailer chains.
Connectionist fashions, like neural networks, permit 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 completely different supply platforms to the identical Tastewise entity. On this course of, we depend on a constant set of options (similar to identify, deal with, and cellphone 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 foods and drinks tendencies.
TasteGPT has recognized development in distinctive dessert preparation strategies, similar to infusing and grilling. What different culinary improvements are on the horizon?
Tastewise’s newest insights reveal an enchanting 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 reputation, reflecting shifts in texture preferences, eating experiences, and even portion sizes.
One of the vital notable tendencies is soaking, which has seen a 30% year-over-year enhance. Soaking entails submerging components in liquid to boost texture, taste, or dietary properties. Historically related to in a single day oats, this methodology is increasing into new territory, similar to 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 components 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 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 development displays the enchantment of immersive cooking experiences that deliver 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 enchantment. The demand for connoisseur small plates, petite pastries, and individually portioned treats suggests that customers are searching for indulgence in a extra balanced and customizable manner.
What are a few of the most stunning tendencies or insights Tastewise has uncovered just lately within the meals and beverage house?
In Fall 2024, we continued our custom of releasing the Taste Developments Report, highlighting essentially the most disruptive meals and beverage tendencies shaping 2025
One of the vital putting tendencies is the rise of Center Japanese flavors, significantly 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 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 apply 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 medicine. Shoppers are more and more searching for customized diet options that align with their particular person wants, from hormone stability to hydration.
Collectively, these tendencies level to a future the place customers will not be solely searching for thrilling flavors and cost-conscious meals but in addition making conscious decisions that align with their well being and sustainability objectives.
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 habits. 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 continually enjoying catch-up with client calls for, resulting in an over 90% failure charge for brand spanking new meals and beverage merchandise. In keeping with the World Financial Discussion board, the meals and beverage trade prices over $19 trillion attributable to environmental harm and food-related well being points, virtually double what the trade itself is price.
I really feel that within the subsequent 5-10 years, firms utilizing AI instruments will begin the shift towards a higher equilibrium, the place manufacturers will not be solely staying on high of tendencies however having a far higher understanding of them and may transfer quickly from ideation to shelf.
Which means that the 90% failure charge will come quickly down, maybe even to zero, which I discover extra fascinating. 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 supposed viewers? What if each product goes to the precise place?
AI will primarily develop into an extension of the human workforce—quicker, extra exact, and always-on. I consider we’ll see a shift from a “useful device” to a “core collaborator.” And what meaning for us at Tastewise is profound.
Our imaginative and prescient is evident: 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 setting 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 habits 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 lower 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 wish to disrupt conventional industries with AI?
Disrupting a conventional trade with AI isn’t nearly having nice expertise—it’s about fixing an actual, urgent drawback. Too typically, firms get caught up within the hype of AI and not using a clear function. The secret’s to start out 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 schooling is simply as necessary as innovation. You must present, not simply inform—use information and real-world success tales to show AI’s worth in a manner that resonates along with your viewers.
On the similar time, flexibility is essential. AI is evolving at an unbelievable tempo, and what works right now 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 primarily based on market wants.
Above all, success comes from assembling the precise workforce. AI alone gained’t disrupt an trade—folks will. Encompass your self with specialists who perceive not solely the expertise but in addition the trade you’re attempting to remodel. With the correct mix of innovation, schooling, and agility, AI can go from being a buzzword to an actual game-changer.
Thanks for the nice interview, readers who want to study extra ought to go to Tastewise.
