1. Food Production
AI can be used at so many points during food production and packaging. AI can do an automated, high-quality inspection of ingredients,
making sure they all meet the company’s or FDA standards. Then AI can automate even
more parts of the production process than ever before, from ingredient sorting
and mixing right down to packaging. Even if workers are still present on the
production line, it can help make their jobs smoother and anticipate their
movements, which could eliminate production delays and cut costs for the consumer in the long run.
2. Robot Waiters and Chefs
There’s lots of possibilities for AI and robots in
restaurants, especially fast food. From taking your order to delivering your
food, restaurants like Kura Sushi and McDonalds are already using advanced
technology to get orders to customers. Both restaurants allow customers to
order via touchscreen. When your drink order is ready, Kura Sushi sends a robot
waiter to your table that has a shelf with filled cups and straws. As for food,
you grab it right from a conveyor belt that snakes around the restaurant. If
you need a human, you can always call for one, but as a customer, you can mostly
serve yourself.
Behind the scenes, robots can also flip burgers, chop
veggies and assemble orders from the line. In Paris, a restaurant called Pazzi operates without humans. It won’t be long before more and more restaurants find
ways to incorporate technology into their process.
3. AI-Powered Drive-Through
Fast foods joints are using AIs in drive-throughs in surprising ways. McDonalds has used license plate scans (with customer permission) to
predict their orders. Do you want a cheeseburger and a Coke, like always? At
Fair Oaks Burger, customers can sign up for facial recognition to auto-pay.
McDonald’s is also using AI to take drive-through orders, with mixed results so far. But with the technology constantly evolving and
improving, it won’t be long before the bugs get worked out and ordering from
the drive-through becomes faster.
4. Predicting Food Trends
AI can analyze data of what customers buy in the store, what
things they buy together, and what they order in restaurants to help develop
the next big products and meals people want to eat. This will help companies
decide which products to highlight during new product launches as well.
One recent example is that Coca-Cola could see that
consumers were mixing cherry-flavored sodas and Sprite. They launched Cherry Sprite as a response to the detected demand.
5. Farmers Can Predict the Right Crops to Grow
Certain crops thrive or fail according to seasonal weather
patterns. Farmers can use weather data, like a souped-up Farmer's Almanac, to predict weather trends for an
upcoming season. They can then cross-match it with the best crops to grow so
they get the most from their harvest.
6. Writing Recipes
AI can learn the foods you have in the fridge and construct a menu based on what you have to cook on hand. It can also get very
sophisticated and take into account your dietary needs, allergies, foods you’ve eaten
recently, foods ready to expire to use up first and foods on sale at your
local store to build the perfect menu.