AI beyond trend tracking: Givaudan and Stravito unlock data for flavor innovation

F&B innovation is advancing beyond AI’s role in identifying consumer trends and supporting R&D workflows, as companies are now unlocking the data they already own to make faster commercial decisions. At Givaudan, the flavor house is leveraging Stravito’s AI platform to transform existing consumer research and market intelligence into a more accessible knowledge source — allowing teams to move faster from consumer insights to flavor innovation.

Based in Sweden, Stravito is an insights intelligence platform, and its AI assistant is known internally at Givaudan as “Genie.” The tool is described as a “single point of entry for insights” for companies and helps speed up projects three- to ten-fold, according to Givaudan.

Food Ingredients First speaks with Basak Oker, Marketing and Consumer Sensory Insights director for Europe at Givaudan, and Stravito’s CEO Thor Olof Philogène, to explore how AI is unlocking years of consumer research to accelerate new product development and where human involvement fits in as the technology reshapes F&B innovation. 

Why Givaudan turned to AI-powered consumer insights

Ingredient companies often struggle with finding and applying the knowledge from vast amounts of existing data. For Givaudan, Oker says the company’s research data faced a key bottleneck, as it was “dispersed across multiple platforms, external providers, internal systems, shared folders, and individual teams.”

“Responding to a customer brief often required employees to know not only where information was stored, but also who might have access to it.”

Philogène adds that extended time spent finding the right information for a customer brief “slowed projects and sometimes led teams to duplicate research that already existed.”

“Givaudan wanted what its team described as a ‘Google for research’ — one intuitive place where employees could quickly find and use the knowledge the organization already had.”

Oker highlights the platform’s “intuitive user experience, rapid implementation, and ability to integrate with existing research providers” as key reasons behind choosing Stravito. He notes the AI tool also offers strong customer support and continuous innovation, data confidentiality, and security.

Givaudan’s Basak Oker says Genie delivers speed and reliability and helps teams uncover relevant insights faster.

AI accelerates food formulation and flavor innovation 

The Genie AI assistant can shorten the distance between consumer insight and innovation decisions. It can help teams move faster from gathering information to analyzing opportunities and developing recommendations for formulations that meet consumer demands.

Oker explains how the technology works: “Take a typical brief — a client asks us to explore flavor opportunities around a rising trend, say a specific cuisine gaining traction with a certain consumer group.”

Company experts previously spent significant time searching across sources and structuring consumer research and market intelligence before analyzing opportunities.

Oker says Genie “changes that starting point” by bringing together and structuring the evidence most relevant to a specific question. Built in a secure environment tailored to Givaudan’s expertise, it allows experts to move faster from gathering information to “challenging the evidence, connecting the dots, and developing the recommendation.”

“For a client, that means every brief starts from years of proprietary expertise, letting us move at market speed without losing depth.”

Ensuring trust in AI

Philogène explains that Stravito’s AI Assistant allows users to ask strategic questions of their organization’s research and receive “synthesized, source-cited answers.” This process helps companies quickly understand what the evidence says without manually searching through individual reports.

Compared to generic AI responses, he describes “grounding and transparency” as key differentiators while using Genie.

“Stravito’s approach reflects ‘Glass Box AI’ principles, where users can see and trace the evidence behind an AI-generated answer rather than simply taking the output at face value.”

“Genie synthesizes the vetted research available within an organization’s Stravito environment, with answers linked directly back to the underlying sources,” he explains.

This gives teams visibility into “where an answer comes from” and the ability to evaluate the evidence for themselves.

Stravito CEO Thor Olof Philogène: Genie differs from generic AI by enabling users to trace the evidence behind every answer.

Human judgement remains essential

Givaudan’s AI adoption reflects a broader industry trend of AI becoming increasingly embedded in ingredient R&D, raising questions about how the technology will reshape the role of food professionals. However, experts maintain that while AI won’t replace jobs such as food scientists, those better acquainted with using the technology to augment their expertise might.

Philogène tells us Stravito views AI as a tool for “freeing up human expertise, rather than replacing it.”

“Insights professionals spend a significant amount of time finding information, synthesizing research, and pulling together what is already known. AI can accelerate that work, giving people more time to focus on interpreting the findings, applying context and judgment, and identifying the opportunities that come next.”

Ultimately, he argues that while AI can help surface the evidence faster, people are “still the ones who understand the customer, challenge the findings, and decide what to do with them.”

Oker agrees that Genie can inform teams on what consumers are saying about a trend, “but it can’t taste, smell, or make the creative leap from a consumer insight to an actual product.”

“That leap — the one that turns into a client’s next successful launch — is entirely human.”

AI tools like Genie can identify trends, but the creative leap from insight to product remains human.