See what F&B leaders say
Food & beverage product development teams are under pressure to innovate faster, cut costs, navigate regulation, and do more with less.
But when formulation, FSQ, regulatory, sourcing, and packaging aren’t connected, every change creates another scramble.
Across four candid Food Matters Live roundtables, industry leaders revealed the bigger pattern: NPD is moving faster while the processes around it haven’t caught up.
Find out what leaders say needs to change.
What's slowing food & beverage product development?
Leaders pointed to six challenges with one bigger pattern:
- Misaligned teams
- Untrusted data
- Pace overtaking process
- Uncertainty around AI
- Missing senior buy-in
- Stretched resources
These aren’t isolated problems.
They’re symptoms of an NPD process built for a slower, more siloed world.
And as AI accelerates what teams can do, that disconnect becomes harder to ignore.
The issue isn’t awareness. It’s connection.
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Senior resource is wasted connecting dots between departments. That’s not a good use of resource when tech already exists that could be doing the same thing.”
Leaders know where the bottlenecks are.
The harder question is how to connect the work around them.
A formulation decision can affect allergens, nutrition, regulatory status, sourcing, packaging, cost and claims.
So why are those decisions still happening in separate places?
“The idea rarely fails. It’s what happens between teams.“
Can AI product development keep up with the pace?
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The challenge with building our own AI is that it only knows what we know.”
AI can speed up the work. But faster isn’t better if the context can’t keep up.
Effective AI product development connects product, supplier, FSQ, Regulatory, nutrition, packaging, and commercial data so teams can move faster with the right context.
The goal isn’t just faster ideas. It’s better decisions, with fewer fire drills.
See what leaders say needs to change
What if the biggest opportunity in NPD isn’t another tool?
What if it’s connecting the work you already do?