Welcome to the third article in our Agilitas Series 'Demystifying Agentic AI in F&B'. After exploring research & ideation, as well as ingredient discovery and selection in our previous articles, we want to go on in exploring the transformative impact of Agentic AI on formula creation and optimization. In today’s food and beverage industry, consumer demands for healthier, sustainable, and innovative products are evolving faster than ever before. Yet, the tools available to food scientists and product developers have remained largely unchanged since the 1990s. Most food scientists still rely on Excel spreadsheets to develop formulas, and only a few point solutions are available to assist with specific tasks like nutritional analysis, label creation or compliance checks along this journey. The result? Long development times, repetitive manual work, and slow innovation.
With Agentic AI however, formula creation and optimization finally can be reimagined, with AI providing long desired relief to food scientists and enabling a leap in efficiency, creativity, and product innovation.
Understanding Formula Creation & Optimization in F&B
Creating and optimizing a product formula is a multi-step process, each step involving extensive manual effort:
- Data Gathering & Ingredient Entry (2-4 weeks): Manually researching and entering ingredient details, percentage weights, pricing, and nutritional values into spreadsheets.
- Initial Formulation Development (1-3 months): Experimenting with combinations of ingredients to develop a starting formula that meets the desired taste, texture, cost, and nutritional targets.
- Iteration & Optimization (2-6 months): Testing the formulation, refining it, and managing multiple versions to reach a viable product.
This traditional process can take anywhere from 6 to 12 months just to get to a starting formula, often leading to missed market opportunities and higher R&D costs.
The Challenges of Traditional Formula Development
Food scientists today face several challenges:
- Manual Data Entry: Entering ingredient details, weights, and costs into spreadsheets is labor-intensive and prone to human error. This process consumes a significant portion of their time before they can even begin optimization.
- Fragmented Tools: Point solutions exist for tasks like nutritional analysis or compliance checks, but switching between them creates inefficiencies and complicates workflows.
- Slow Iterations: Each formula iteration involves recalculations and updates, making it slow and cumbersome to optimize products. It can take months just to develop an initial formula.
- Lack of Technological Innovation: Food scientists are underserved by technology, relying on outdated methods that have not evolved in decades. This lack of innovation limits their ability to keep up with market demands.
The result? Food scientists spend up to 90% of their time just creating a starting formula instead of focusing on creative product development.
How Agentic AI Can Accelerate Formula Creation & Optimization
Agentic AI transforms formula creation and optimization, dramatically speeding up the process while reducing the burden of manual tasks:
- Instant Starting Formulas: Agentic AI can leverage Large Language Models (LLMs) and additional public and non-public data sources to generate starting formulas in minutes rather than weeks. Food scientists can upload data on ingredients, product objectives, and constraints, or simply instruct the AI to create a formula from scratch—resulting in an editable draft with up to 80% accuracy.
- Flexible Data Integration: Food scientists can provide input in various ways:
- Significant Time Savings: With Agentic AI, companies can reduce the time required to create a starting formula by up to 90%, allowing R&D teams to get to a viable starting point in a matter of minutes, freeing up time for creative exploration and refinement.
Formula Reverse Engineering through AI: Developing a Functional Coffee Creamer
Consider a company wanting to create a functional coffee creamer. They have no previous experience in this product category, which would traditionally require them to:
- Spend weeks or even months contacting suppliers, gathering information, and consulting with experts.
- Develop a starting formula through manual iteration and trial-and-error to get the right blend of flavor, texture, and functional ingredients.
- The company inputs specific objectives—such as flavor, nutritional benefits (e.g., adaptogens or collagen), and cost targets.
- Agentic AI autonomously searches for suitable ingredients, simulates their interactions, and generates a draft formula within minutes.
- The R&D team receives a ready-to-test formula, allowing them to purchase ingredients and begin lab trials the same week.
- Faster Time-to-Market: With the initial research and formula creation happening in just days, the company can get their functional coffee creamer on store shelves much sooner.
- Early Brand Establishment: Entering the market faster gives the company a first-mover advantage, allowing them to establish a presence in an emerging category before others catch up.
- Revenue Growth: Launching earlier means capturing consumer interest sooner, leading to faster revenue generation and brand growth.
By adopting Agentic AI, the company can significantly cut costs, reduce time to market, and capture demand early, ultimately gaining an edge in a competitive market category.
Accelerating Formula Optimization with Agentic AI
Once a starting formula is created, Agentic AI also helps accelerate the optimization process:
- Real-Time Adjustments: Instead of manually recalculating ingredient ratios, food scientists can give simple instructions like: "Reduce sugar content", "replace milk with plant-based milk alternative", or "make the product organic while maintaining cost constraint". Agentic AI immediately generates an updated version, incorporating the changes seamlessly so the food scientist can finalize the next iteration and take it back to the lab.
- Lab Test Integration: The AI learns from lab test feedback and adjusts the formula accordingly, ensuring that ingredient interactions meet desired taste, texture, and shelf-life requirements.
- Chat and Prompt-Based Instructions: Through interactive chat or pre-defined prompts, food scientists can instruct the AI as they work, making the optimization process highly collaborative and efficient.
How to Start Adopting Agentic AI
Adopting Agentic AI in the ingredient discovery process is straightforward when following a structured approach:
- Start with a Pilot Project: Focus on one specific aspect of ingredient discovery, such as formulation optimization or regulatory compliance. This allows you to assess the impact of Agentic AI without disrupting your entire R&D process.
- Partner with AI Experts: Collaborate with AI providers that specialize in the F&B industry, to ensure a smooth integration into your R&D workflows.
- Upskill Your Team: Ensure your R&D and procurement teams are trained to work with AI tools, allowing them to transition from manual methods to more advanced, AI-driven processes.
- Evaluate ROI Continuously: Track performance improvements, cost savings, and time-to-market benefits to ensure you’re maximizing the potential of Agentic AI.
Outlook: The Future of Formula Creation with Agentic AI
Looking ahead, Agentic AI will continue to transform product development in the F&B industry:
- AI-First User Interfaces: AI-powered tools will further simplify workflows, making the process of creating, iterating, and optimizing formulations even more intuitive.
- Greater Accessibility: The democratization of formulation will enable small and medium-sized companies to innovate as effectively as larger players, leveling the playing field and driving more competition.
The days of relying solely on spreadsheets are coming to an end. With Agentic AI, food scientists can focus on creativityand innovation, while AI takes care of the complexities of formulation.
Conclusion
Agentic AI is revolutionizing formula creation and optimization in the F&B industry, making it faster, more efficient, and far less manual. By automating key tasks, offering real-time optimization, and reducing development timelines by up to 90%, Agentic AI empowers companies to innovate, iterate, and bring products to market faster.
