The food industry's use of artificial intelligence (AI) is expanding beyond simple document drafting or search to core tasks that can boost productivity and profitability. With the domestic market slump and rising labor costs continuing, corporations are prioritizing AI in areas that can raise productivity and work efficiency rather than as a means of cutting head count, seeking to improve profitability.
According to related industries on the 30th, food corporations have recently been expanding AI adoption around tasks such as production, quality control, purchasing, store operations, and logistics, where expense-reduction effects can be confirmed relatively quickly.
Dongwon Group recently formally deployed first-cohort AI employees to six major affiliates, including Dongwon Industries(006040), Dongwon F&B, and Dongwon Home Food. Dongwon Group said the first cohort of AI employees will save a total of 24,000 work hours a year across the company. Based on an eight-hour workday, that replaces repetitive tasks one employee would have to perform for about 12 years.
A Dongwon Group official said, "Through six agents, we have built a system that can respond seamlessly even in sites and time slots where it is difficult for people to be present." According to Dongwon Group, the agent assigned to Dongwon Industries monitors about 60 information technology (IT) systems in real time, and the agent at Dongwon F&B supports customer service at specialty health food stores. At Dongwon Systems, it automatically generates optimal freight dispatch requests for each client, and at Dongwon Construction & Industry, it automates construction estimates. Dongwon Group plans to introduce a second cohort of AI employees in the second half to expand the scope of application further.
Baskin-Robbins has integrated a Generative AI engine at the new product planning stage. Using AI, Baskin-Robbins recently developed three new flavors to date. AI cross-analyzed social media (SNS) buzz volume (number of mentions), in-house mall search trend data, and seasonal preferred flavor combinations to derive the optimal concept.
Nongshim(004370) is building its Busan Noksan export-only plant into an AI-based Smart Factory. AI installed on the production line learns from hundreds of thousands of product photos to determine noodle thickness, packaging condition, and printing defects, and a system to predict equipment anomalies and production disruptions will also be introduced going forward. A Nongshim official said, "The area where AI is being actively used now is the final quality inspection stage of the production process," adding, "We are using it to raise the level of quality control by filtering out even packaging print defects that were hard to catch with conventional X-ray inspection." The official added, "At this point, we are not introducing AI to cut labor costs or solve staffing issues," noting, "We are in a stage of applying AI mainly to production and quality control."
Office work is also being streamlined through AI. Samyang Group built its own AI platform, 'SAMI 2.0,' to support statute reviews, client orders, receipt of materials and supplies, voucher screening, and raw material price analysis. Dining Brands Group Co. also enabled its in-house AI platform, 'Dynai,' to support a wide range of tasks, including document drafting, news summaries, HR, directly run store operations, and marketing.
More recently, AI use has been expanding into consumer marketing. Goobne Chicken unveiled ads and short-form content created with Generative AI, and even held an "AI CM Song Contest" in which AI produced ad soundtracks in model Choo Sung Hoon's voice when consumers entered lyrics. Lotteria used AI to produce an ad that captured the brand's history and ran experiential content at a pop-up store that composited visitors' faces with AI.
Experts say that, given the labor-intensive nature of the food industry in manufacturing, logistics, and distribution and the high share of repetitive tasks, the scope of AI adoption will continue to expand. Seo Yong-gu, a professor in the business administration department at Sookmyung Women's University, said, "The food industry involves many labor-intensive processes such as manufacturing, logistics, and distribution, and a high proportion of repetitive tasks, making it more suitable for AI adoption than other industries," adding, "Beyond simple office work, AI adoption will quickly expand first in areas tied to corporations' profitability, such as materials and supplies procurement, production, and supply chain management."