Artificial intelligence (AI) is changing many aspects of the food industry, but its application is less widespread within the protein supply chain (mainly chicken, beef and pork) than in other areas, industry insiders say.
Supply chain executives from Tyson Foods, Simmons Foods, and Happy Egg believe that next-generation technology has the potential to have a significant impact on improving efficiency within the protein supply chain. Similar sentiments were expressed at a recent supply chain event we sponsored. arcade retail store in Bentonville.
Siloam Springs-based Simmons Foods processes approximately 47 billion pounds of chicken annually and has sales of more than $67 billion. The company’s sales include its pet food division, food service sales to restaurants, and private label chicken sales to grocery stores. The company is reportedly using digital twin AI applications and statistical process control analytics to monitor and improve production and reduce downtime.
Marcia Reeves, senior vice president of technical services at Simmons Foods, said senior executives are participating in the exploration of AI and are excited about its potential. She said that as the team begins to implement AI and bring real-world examples to the table, they will be able to bring in others and teach as they practice. The company is implementing AI demand forecasting to reduce switching and inventory costs. Reeves said he has wanted a crystal ball to help predict demand for 20 years, and AI is helping bring him closer to that concept.
John Swan, vice president of supply chain at Tyson Foods, said the data fed into artificial intelligence models must be structured in a meaningful way to derive value.
“This is one of the biggest challenges, but also a huge opportunity,” he said. “Tyson protects our data, but our supply chain has the opportunity to share more data to achieve further optimization. It’s part of everything we do.”
Like Simmons, Springdale-based Tyson Foods is also using AI to forecast demand. Since 2024, Tyson has used AI to predict food trends and generate recipe formulations for new products. In 2025, Tyson began using an AI-powered conversational assistant in its customer search system.
Swan said building trust with AI is all about validating the data being shared. He said data integrity is critical and human-AI interaction is meaningful and a great way to solve problems. He urges companies to start small with company-wide buy-in, noting that specific problems are the best test cases.
Rogers-based Happy Egg is in the early exploration stages of AI, said Blake Klosterman, director of supply chain. The company partnered with AI company Skai to manage and optimize ads for Amazon, Target, and Instacart. At the farm level, the company tested an AI application to monitor the health of chickens.
Industry sources say that while protein production (food processing) is progressing in parallel with the introduction of AI, there are still lags at the farm level in the early stages of the supply chain, particularly in the beef and seafood industries, which remain fragmented.
