Agentic AI in food industry summary
- Agentic AI refers to autonomous systems that set goals independently
- Food and beverage companies deploy agentic AI beyond chatbots
- Nestlé uses agentic AI for productivity, HR and finance decisions
- Over 10,0000 Nestlé employees regularly use AI tools globally
- Danone pilots agentic AI to cut waste and energy use
AI is near-ubiquitous in food and beverage, as it is almost everywhere else. It’s optimising processes at almost every level of production, and many of the major food companies are already embracing it.
But what about agentic AI? The more autonomous, more flexible forms of AI are also being used by the food industry.
What is agentic AI?
Agentic AI is artificial intelligence that is autonomous and capable of setting goals. Other forms of AI, such as chatbots, need far more extensive prompts; agentic AI can act mostly of its own volition.
For example, when making an order online, many AI models will need instructions from a human being on what to choose, when to order and what price to select.
An agentic AI, on the other hand, can, with minimal prompts, make these decisions itself, looking at available options and deciding which to go for, as well as aiming to get the best price.
This AI is ‘agentic’ because it has agency, at least more agency than other types of AI models.
So how are the biggest names in the business using it?
Agentic AI can boost productivity by streamlining tasks
Agentic AI can improve productivity, streamlining tasks and reducing workload.
For example, the world’s biggest food company, Nestlé, is using agentic AI to boost personal productivity. More than 100,000 employees of the company are regular AI users, with agentic elements being incorporated into this, explains a Nestlé spokesperson.
Nestlé is using agentic AI for employee self-service, with HR services in particular using AI-powered support for employees (although human experts take over for more complex cases). The piloting for this is currently underway.
Agentic AI can also support Nestlé sales teams in automating repetitive sales tasks, which in turn allows sales teams to put more time into customer engagement and measures to support growth.
Dairy major Danone is another big name in the business also using agentic AI. The company is piloting agentic AI across several operations to support productivity, explains a spokesperson.
Agentic AI can improve decision-making
Alongside its use in boosting productivity, agentic AI can work with humans to improve decision-making.
Nestlé is using agentic AI in finance, to help managers improve decision-making for topics such as working capital, risk and trade-offs in capital allocation. It is able to bring “key insights” together to develop a single clear view. The agentic AI can both access information and generate consistent reporting. This can also be scaled to be used in different cases.
Danone has also begun to use agentic AI to support decision-making, albeit with human oversight and governance in place, explains a Danone spokesperson.
For example, Danone’s AI can analyse production data, simulate scenarios and highlight areas for operational improvement. It can support teams to reduce waste, optimise operational performance and improve energy efficiency.
As AI evolves, agentic capabilities are expected to evolve with it. Early pilot trials today may pave the way for full‑scale rollouts in the near future.
