Tech’s unprecedented role in product development

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Tech’s unprecedented role in product development

7 Jul 2026

Annie Hollon

Annie Hollon is a journalist, copywriter and social media strategist from the Dallas, Texas area. She found a love for magazine writing during her time at the University of Alabama where she graduated with a Bachelor of Arts, double majoring in public relations and English. Beyond writing, you can find her expanding her library, attempting to teach herself the guitar and trying new hobbies.

KANSAS CITY, MO — The introduction and integration of AI has shaken things up across all industries. In the food and beverage space, the tool is proving to be a resource for various departments. While currently being tested in areas such as equipment design, there is also potential for AI to find its place in the world of product development.

In Confectionery News’ recent webinar, Taste and Texture: What’s Tempting Consumers in 2026, Alisia Heath, VP of research and development at NotCo, a foundational AI platform designed for the CPG industry, offered her viewpoint on how this resource can — and already is — making an impact for R&D professionals.

One major benefit she noted was AI’s ability to quickly process data and outline trends and patterns, which can save product development teams valuable time.

“Because AI is trained across vast data sets, it’s able to remove biases that we all carry, discovering ingredient combinations and structural possibilities that no human would have intuitively reached for,” Heath said. “Combine that with the speed of iteration that AI enables and teams can pursue far older ideas with greater confidence than previously possible.”

Crafting a new SKU is no small task; it takes months or years of work and careful consideration to bring something novel to store shelves. Heath noted that AI can take that timeline down from multiple years to 12 months or less for new products or just a few months for product renovations.

“We’ve heard from several of our clients that for some of the more challenging renovations, like food sugar removal or even high percentage of cocoa reduction, they’ve been working on these things for years and were able to get better results within months or even weeks using AI,” she said.

Pairing human R&D talent with AI resources can bring the best of both worlds to CPG companies’ product development departments. While the tech can help streamline data and process it faster than individual team members, people’s creativity and ability to contextualize the task at hand are unparalleled. Together, both parties can redefine what’s possible in this space.

“Food science needs to set the target to harness AI properly, and the best outcome comes whenever AI handles the heavy lifting of that data processing and pattern recognition, and humans are directing that capacity and capability with expertise, creativity and strategic concept,” Heath said. “It’s not about replacement; it’s all about amplification.”