At a recent meeting Beverage Business We looked at how AI is being used in the wine and spirits industry and how the technology is likely to develop.
Although not yet widespread, artificial intelligence (AI) is already being used across a range of industries to aid in new product development, marketing and operational improvements. But how does AI benefit companies in the alcohol industry, and does it pose a risk to creativity and jobs?
This topic is Beverage BusinessOn June 17th, a conference on AI took place at the Science Gallery in London to explore how AI is transforming the wine and spirits industry. The event was organised in partnership with Preferabli, a company that provides product discovery and recommendation software for wine, spirits and food.
Panellists for the first seminar, “The Nature of Sensory AI”, included Patrick Schmitt MW, Editor in Chief of Drinks Industry, Pam Dillon, Co-founder and CEO of Preferabli in New York, Professor Charles Spence MA PhD, Director of the Cross-Modal Lab at the University of Oxford, and Chris Hoel, Founder and CEO of Harper's Club.
Spence emphasized that food and beverages have a point of differentiation that goes beyond the product to the experience. Citing vodka or water, which are “defined by their lack of taste,” he said: “How do you provide a premium experience there? If you can marry that with sonic condiments and other multi-sensory experiences that go beyond the drink, you're able to offer more, you're able to build a differentiated product, and you're able to blend more flavors.”
Sommelier Hoel believes music is another important element in the service environment. “Music has a big impact on mood,” he added. Spence also gave the example of a four-day wine tasting in Campo Viejo, where “just changing the lighting and music had a big impact on the taste.” He added, “How can we go beyond the normal experience and offer a special tasting experience that people have never had before? Can we create a magical service?” Spence said Glenmorangie is considering a special whiskey tasting experience using ASMR (autonomous sensory meridian response) triggers to help consumers “feel” the taste of Glenmorangie.
Dillon said the world is in the midst of a “massive redefinition of what a luxury experience is” as consumers become more environmentally conscious.
Another panel discussed how generative AI, which can generate text, images and video, can be applied in industry. Schmidt was joined by Andrew Sussman, co-founder and CTO of Preferabli, Oguz A. Acar, professor of marketing and innovation at King's Business School, King's College London, and Nick Martin, CEO of Wine Owners.
As for how brand owners can use generative AI to market their products, Acar pointed out several opportunities for AI in the market. The first is customization, how it “takes personalization to the next level at an unprecedented scale.” The second is creativity. “What's interesting is that when humans work with AI, the benefits are multiplied and there's the potential for more creativity.”
Speaking about the future of AI, Aker speculated that we may see more “agent AI — AI tools that can perform tasks on their own,” as a lot of human input is currently required: “What we're going to see next is an increase in context windows — tools that can actually hold a lot more information in memory.”
The role of AI in cocktails was also discussed with cocktail bar veteran Will Meredith, director of Daisy Aged Drinks, and Lucy Thomas, head waiter at London bar Lyaness. On creating the new cocktail menu with input from the entire team, Thomas said: “We're always looking for ways to reach as wide an audience as possible and achieve as much variety as possible. We were trying to think of ways to use AI in interesting ways, rather than having AI write the menu for us, because that would take away our jobs. So we had a menu based on key ingredients. There were five key ingredients at the time. We basically sent the names of these ingredients to an AI-generated software, which generated images for the menu and coasters.”
For one mushroom-based drink, for example, AI created an image that recreated the cloud created by an atomic bomb explosion. “For every menu, we input a few ingredients and see what kind of picture we can create for them. It's a fun way to integrate AI with mushrooms. [AI] our [design] It's about having initiative and creativity.”
Schmidt also highlighted Diageo's recent collaboration with AI Palette, which revealed key flavour trends for 2024, including umami, spicy, tropical and “bloom harvest.”
Meredith noted that in an age where “everyone has access to just about every ingredient on earth,” it's important to “pull yourself up” when considering ingredients, flavors and drinks.
He adds: “Trends are generally driven by macro-cultural events like film, art and fashion. Last year we had Barbie-mania and then later in the year everyone loved pink drinks. Then we had the Oppenheimer martini. We also have the Pantone colour scheme that dictates Starbucks slushies. Drinks trends definitely follow these macro-cultural movements.”
Software Development
The final seminar of the day looked at AI software development in the wine and spirits industry. Joining Schmidt and Dillon on the panel were Barry C. Smith, Professor of Philosophy and Director of the Institute of Philosophy at the School of Advanced Study, University of London, and Rob Hollands, CEO of Proofworks, a company that aims to help the spirits industry digitize its supply chain and prevent counterfeiting.
When asked if AI could replace industry roles, Dillon responded that Preferabli's software “is not replacing anyone,” saying, “What we see broadly in the wine and spirits industry is production and supply chain optimization. There are elements of the software that will replace some jobs and create others, but in the narrow field of wine and spirits software machine learning, jobs aren't going to disappear. It's all about amplification and augmentation.”
Holland added: “From a consumer perspective, not everyone has the ability to go to a whiskey tasting, visit a distillery or be guided on a wine journey. Digital tools can be used to replace that, extend that and make it more accessible to more people. In terms of the actual distillery itself, we are optimising the processes there, but it's so that distilleries can focus on what they're good at – creating new recipes, innovating, etc.”
In other ways.”
Proponents of AI argue that it can help the alcohol industry increase operational efficiencies, innovate with new products and recipes, improve customer experience, and stay competitive in a dynamic marketplace.
