If two letters sum up what most people are talking about in the food production and retailing business in 2024 it would be A.I. Indeed, the topic of artificial intelligence is on the minds and agendas of many throughout the farm-to-fork supply chain, from feed suppliers to farmers and ranchers to retail meat department managers and grocery executives.
According to FMI’s The Food Retailing Industry Speaks 2023, the food retail industry is finding more ways to use technology to meet its biggest needs in areas ranging from operations to customer experience. 85% of retailers were experimenting with new technologies to improve the customer experience in 2022, up from 73% in 2021. Furthermore, a groundbreaking shift is underway as one-quarter of retailers and over a third of suppliers harness artificial intelligence to revolutionize customer data, with an astonishing 60% of food suppliers and 23% of food retailers embracing this transformative technology.
While it’s a leading agenda item, what’s less clear is how, when, where and why to proceed with AI at respective points in meat production and retailing. This broad technology can be used to optimize cutting in meat processing facilities and to determine optimal flavor combinations in value-added products. At the store level, retailers can rely on AI to better predict demand for right-size assortments and pricing.
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