Artificial Intelligence is revolutionising the drinks industry, influencing everything from manufacturing and supply chain through to retail, marketing and corporate.
Drinks companies have moved on from gimmicks such as Coca-Cola Australia launching Y3000 Zero Sugar, a flavour it co-created using AI; and Australian Vintage producing Australia’s first AI-curated wine, called CTZN. Technology is now powering behind-the-scenes results.
Lion announced this week that it is deploying OpenAI’s ChatGPT Enterprise to its 2500 staff and agentic coding tool Codex as well, as part of a plan to embed AI across its operations.
The brewer has nearly doubled the accuracy of its demand forecasting for beer, wine and spirits by integrating specialised AI tools. It’s an innovation that has been particularly helpful during the disruptions caused by the US-Iran conflict.
Lion said that the technology has also proven useful in demand forecasting, “using more than 500 variables to better predict demand” for beer, pre-mixed drinks, wine and spirits.
Lion Executive General Manager – Digital & Technology Robb Simpson said: “This collaboration with OpenAI is about equipping our people with the tools and capabilities to work smarter, move faster, and continue delivering great products and experiences for our customers,” he said.
“We’re constantly balancing supply and demand in a category where conditions can change overnight. Something as simple as an unexpected spike in temperature can drive a surge in demand for beer and spirits, putting pressure on our supply chain and our customers. That’s why we see significant opportunity in using tools like ChatGPT Enterprise to improve our demand forecasting and ensure we can respond more quickly and accurately in real time.”
Simpson told The Australian the AI tools synthesised data and adjusted market actions in a matter of days, a process that previously took weeks or months and “almost double our accuracy”.
“We started to invest in our data assets three or four years ago,” Simpson said.
“And this is probably where the good luck came in … the widespread commercialisation or availability of AI. So it meant that when that came along a year or two ago, we were able to get a pretty fast start, because our data was already in the right place.
“We’re constantly balancing supply and demand in a category where conditions can change overnight. Something as simple as an unexpected spike in temperature can drive a surge in demand for beer and spirits, putting pressure on our supply chain and our customers.
“That’s why we see significant opportunity in using tools like ChatGPT Enterprise to improve our demand forecasting and ensure we can respond more quickly and accurately in real time.”
TWE uses AI to drive product innovation
Treasury Wine Estates has launched the Treasury Innovation Engine, using AI to accelerate the concept-to-launch cycle for its Sorbet range and Cali by Snoop (Smooth) collaboration with Snoop Dogg, which sped up the process from nine months to 90 days.
TWE describes Cali Smooth as “a uniquely stylised red blend featuring bold and flavourful notes of dark fruit, toasted oak, and vanilla, followed by a silky-smooth finish”.
TWE worked with Ideally, founded by software entrepreneur James Donald three years ago. Ideally aims to smash the $90 billion global market research industry by delivering the same result as bigger firms for about a 10th of the cost.
Ideally’s technology uses AI to sharpen the questions to consumer panels and then analyses the resulting data at lightning speed.
“Let’s say you’ve got a few concepts and you’ve got a few other questions you’re trying to test around those concepts to understand people’s behaviour and response and attitudes, we can do for $5000 what might have been $50,000 for an agency like Kantar to do, but using the same underlying quality of data, quality of humans, processing of data,” Donald told The Australian.
“The world is moving so fast now. The brands actually need to keep up. If they’re not doing that, there’s challenger brands, which are nipping at their heels also doing the same. So you can’t just afford to fall behind.”
Treasury Wine Estates global director of insights, strategy, and planning Adele Felsch told The Australia that AI had played a crucial role in the development of its Sorbet range, which includes Raspberry Rose, Lemon Prosecco, Mango Sauvignon Blanc, Passionfruit Pinot Gris, Strawberry Pinot Noir and Wild Berry Shiraz.
She worked with Ideally as they evolved the packaging, the concept and the varietals linked with the flavours. It helped the company fine tune those elements and see what products resonated better with that younger consumer cohort.
It meant they could test in “an agile environment and be able to act with pace and therefore bring it to market sooner, which is all around meeting this consumer need”.
Felsch told The Australian AI cut down the testing and research process from months to days and hours.
“With Sorbet we identified a compelling price point that is a gap in the market that we know consumers are looking for. So it is all about marrying up the right category insight, with the right consumer insight,” she said.