584: AI's impact on NPD, with Antonio Weiss, Author and Tech Expert

Is AI going to revolutionise food and beverage innovation, or are we being sold a lot of hype?

While 85% of digital transformation efforts fail, companies like Coca-Cola and Carlsberg are already using AI for everything from trend-spotting to flavour prediction.

In this episode of the Food Matters Live podcast, recorded at our event in Dublin in November 2025, Antonio Weiss, author of "AI Demystified," cuts through the hype to reveal what's actually working in AI-powered new product development.

Antonio explains why he believes large language models are useful for some parts of NPD (marketing, branding, trends), while the serious work of flavour prediction and demand forecasting requires specialist machine learning models like graph neural networks.

He maps out both optimistic and pessimistic scenarios. Can we maintain the human "through line" between creator and consumer, or will AI slop dominate our feeds? The answer may depend on the choices we make today.