Navigating the Future of Food and Grocery Retail in the Age of AI’ with Prof. Dr. Alexander Kutter.

You studied biotechnology and food technology. What drew you to that?

I've always been drawn to the latest technologies and science. I'm more of a generalist than a specialist, and my CV is a reflection of that. I was very interested in chemistry and physics during my time in school, but especially in their application. So I'm not somebody who started in one specialty field and then became an expert in the mechanics of it. I always wanted to apply the science and work in a broad spectrum of disciplines.

What lead you to rheology?

As someone who is interested in everything that is related to processing, I am intrigued by the intersection of physics, machines, electronics, sensors and actors on the one hand, and food production and processing on the other. That’s the reason why I started this study at the TU? Munich Weihenstephan. During the course of my studies, I realized that I'm also very interested in fluid mechanics and rheology. Flows, especially of non-Newtonian fluids, are important. They even play a central role throughout the lifetime of foodstuffs: from harvesting foods and transporting them in flow canals, to their production where mixing and pumping are relevant and at the end the cooking and preparation in the kitchen. Rheology is everywhere, which is why the “slogan” of rheology is “panta rhei”, everything flows. I did my PhD at the Friedrich Alexander University Erlangen Nuremberg on how humans perceive the mouthfeel of foods. So for example, how do you know that this custard sauce or this yogurt is creamy, while the other one isn't? Or how does the viscosity or the flow properties of a particular food influence the perception or the mouth feel?

?How did you apply AI during your research?

I used AI to model the relationship between physical measurements and how they can be linked to the mouthfeel. My PhD was about how to link the rheology measurements in the lab and the perception of mouthfeel. To be honest, it was really difficult to find a big enough data base for training and validation, creating my own was almost impossible. But this shows the importance of this idea, because using sensory panels is time consuming and expensive.

?What is the proudest moment in your career so far?

That’s a difficult question. I think it is something that is a part of my second passion which I developed and deepened in? the last decade, namely Virtual Reality. What I'm really proud of, and it's actually a group achievement, are the applications that we create, especially the VR applications. I can confidently say that we have reached the point, as a team, that we are able to make use of the full potential of VR. Currently we are combining our VR market research with AI, and that’s where we will really make a huge difference. Since the “renaissance” of VR? over ten years ago, a lot of people were using VR without really understanding the medium. So the applications were and sometimes even still are very mediocre. But now, we have successfully created VR applications, experiences and games that harness the full potential of VR. So this is really something I am very proud of.

?Can you give us an example?

A few years ago we developed a cooperative VR game called Jack Hammer Jam for the international company Strabag. It is used at fairs and basically allows visitors to use a 3D printed model of a jackhammer to work on the surface of the moon. The idea was to communicate the possible jobs and their collaboration in a fun environment. It was a huge success and even won prices.

We are now creating a new application for Strabag that we release at the Ideen Expo in June. This one tries to go a step further. But most importantly I want to mention our VR market research tool “Mimir”, which uses the virtues of VR. We provide market research in completely customizable and realistic digital ‘twins’ of supermarkets, pharmacies, beverage stores, etc. ?These studies are always accompanied with surveys to combine subconscious decisions in VR with conscious ones in the survey. We are experts in combining all the things that work very well in VR with the requirements in the “real reality”.

?How will VR and AI impact retail? ?

Before our application, marketeers would either go to a supermarket to do their research, which would disturb the shoppers, or they would build so-called test markets for the purpose of market research. This is extremely expensive, and it’s also very time-consuming and cumbersome as you need to fill shelves to create a specific situation but on a much smaller scale. A third option is to book a “white room”, for example to study a single shelf, somewhere in the middle of a city in so-called test studios. You would then just ask people if they are willing to take part in market research. What we did is create our easy-to-use tool Mimir that market researchers can use as a software-as-a-service subscription. So imagine you are in this white room, a marketing test studio, but you’re wearing VR glasses. You have the impression of being in a real life supermarket. We focused on creating realistic 3D models with realistic graphics, to make the experience as immersive as possible. This allows us to create an environment with a game engine that records the entire session, including eye-tracking and the derived KPIs. Because of that, we are able to deliver a complete market research study within a few weeks. It’s cheaper, more efficient and a lot more fun to do.? It’s also reproducible, independently of? “space and time”, so we can recreate the experience anywhere in the world as often as we want. It’s like conducting benchmark studies once a year as a reference for the other studies.

We are working on applying AI to improve the workflow at several points. The idea is to make AI tools available to our customers without them noticing. Of course, they know we use AI technology, but we want to integrate them seamlessly into the overall experience and customer journey.

You are also a professor of Immersive Studies at the Technicshe Hochschule Ostwestfalen - Lippe. What is the one thing you want to pass on to your students?

?Don’t find solutions for things people didn’t ask for. Some people, myself included in my early career, can be so focused on the technology, that they get stuck in answers to questions nobody is asking. Or in the words of Steve Jobs: ‘It’s about the customer experience, and the technology comes afterwards’.

?What excites you the most about the future of food?

What excites me about the future of food is what also got me thinking about it 20 years ago. You have a set of ingredients that is, luckily or unfortunately, limited. But technology is able to reshape our natural resources into different textures and appearance and so on. That you can make this huge variety of foods from a limited set of ingredients to improve quantity and quality is quite amazing. I am aware of the tendency ?to think all processed foods is bad for you, and of course it is preferable to eat fresh fruit and vegetables if possible, but we also need to process food.

How did your academic path, shape or even alter your understanding of what it means to be human?

?Oh, another difficult and far reaching question. Well, I think as human beings we are bound to the earth, but science applies everywhere. As soon as I started realizing that what we discover and unveil here on earth most likely also applies to the rest of the universe, it left me thinking and becoming very humble. And then I see that people like Elon Musk investing millions and maybe billions in a project to colonize Mars. In my opinion it is such a waste of resources that could be applied better here on earth to make it a better place for more people. I hope this understanding of the world can help us create better outcomes for everyone.

Is there anything you would like us to look into in preparation of the panel discussion on May 20th?

By taking a look at the video we made, you’ll understand what we do.

https://youtu.be/uZql5dA4v1E?si=EnsTu8qLNC9GBbEo