Tastewise Launches AI-Powered Food Trend Prediction Platform

Tastewise Launches AI-Powered Food Trend Prediction Platform

With social media reinventing trend evolution, food manufacturers and restaurants are struggling to keep up with their customers. Today’s consumers are adventurous tasters and health-conscious dieters, quickly shifting from one craze to the next. What if companies could respond immediately to culinary trends?

New startup Tastewise has an artificial intelligence (AI) solution that could revolutionize the way food companies do business by mining online data, including social media, to find the fastest-growing food trends. For example, Tastewise says the industry is currently missing out on “$9 billion dollars in untapped demand for healthy food,” because restaurants and food companies are unaware of what their customers are craving and what market opportunities are available.

Helping food companies understand their consumers

So, how can food manufacturers use this data, given that it takes quite a bit longer for a food company to modify its ingredients than it does for a restaurant to switch up its menu?

“If you’re a food brand,” Chen says, “you will be looking for trends that are more permanent and don’t fade out quickly.” Traditional surveys and focus groups can take several months to show results. By then, consumers may have already moved on to the next big thing. Because Tastewise is updated in real time, it speeds up the data collection process immensely.