Unilever launches AI-powered menu planning tool

Unilever Food Solutions (UFS) has unveiled an AI-powered chatbot which allows chefs and operators to generate trend-led, audience-targeted menu ideas in minutes.

The Future Menus Recipe Intelligence Tool builds on UFS’s Future Menus Vol 3 trend report, which includes social listening across 312 million global searches and feedback from more than 1,100 chefs, to distil insights into a dynamic chat interface.

This means operators can input a few variables (like their target customer or seasonal focus) and receive tailored menu suggestions, nutritional insights and even a ‘Gen Z Compatibility Score’ – a quick assessment of how menus resonate with younger diners – all within a conversation-style interface.

Recipe suggestions are aligned with the four latest Future Menus Vol 3 trends: modernised comfort, borderless cuisine, diner designed and street food couture.

UFS has created the Future Menus tool to alleviate the growing pressure on foodservice professionals to deliver creativity under constraints, expediting what has traditionally been time-consuming trend research.

Julienne Suignard, head of operator and digital marketing at UFS, said: “With the Future Menus Recipe Intelligence Tool, we’re offering chefs a practical way to access powerful insights and culinary inspiration – all through a simple chat interface.

“It’s designed to take the guesswork out of menu planning by connecting operators directly with the most relevant data and food trends.”

UFS first hinted at the tool’s release during a session at this year’s HRC trade show in March, where it revealed its latest Future Menus report.

At the time, Stuart Jeffrey, the company’s UKI/ANZ marketing director, said: “The recipes you get out of this model have all been seen by a chef, and then the AI is able to give you some extensions to that or adaptations to that.”