MARCO ISLAND, Fla. — During Leslie Sarasin’s tenure as president and chief executive officer of FMI – The Food Industry Association, the organization has consistently helped members bring into sharp focus the issues that matter most. FMI upheld that tradition at the recent Midwinter Executive Conference here by tackling the topic of artificial intelligence and the ramifications of the technology for the grocery industry and its customers.

Throughout the four-day meeting, speakers examined the intersection between AI, machine learning and other advanced technologies with business practices that have long sustained the modern grocery business. The multifaceted picture that emerged was intended to serve as a starting point for ongoing dialogue about the evolution of the supermarket channel, and highlight opportunities to forge dynamic new partnerships.

After acknowledging the difficulty of embracing change in her remarks at the opening general session, Sarasin asserted that the food industry “stands on the cusp of a significant new epoch.” That epoch will be propelled by technology.

“The development of AI impacts every aspect of our industry. It places us all on the edge of a new age, where new innovations and new possibilities will thrust us repeatedly into a cycle of change, risk, and growth challenges and opportunities,” she said. “We simply must get more comfortable with our discomfort in talking with each other about artificial intelligence, its implications, challenges, limits, dangers and opportunities.”

Sarasin noted that supermarket operators and CPG suppliers are already at work leveraging the power of technology. Eight-five percent of FMI members are testing new systems designed to better serve the customer, she said, while 84% of them are using technology to improve efficiency. Sixty-two percent of retailers are employing data analytics to bolster pricing and promotional strategies, and 35% of manufacturers are using AI to maximize the benefits of customer data.

“Because differentiation is so key in the food industry, one of the most telling statistics, for me anyway, is the strategy retailers are using to set themselves apart from the competition,” Sarasin noted. “When we asked, two of the top four strategies — offer personalized service (64%) and checkout experience focused on speed (56%) — are fundamentally reliant upon AI.”

The enormous potential of AI hasn’t blinded FMI and its members to the threats posed by the technology and the large language models that underlie it. Those dangers are the subject of intense debate in the press. Writing in a recent edition of The Wall Street Journal, Eric Schmidt, executive chairman of Google, said, “Advanced AI systems could end up misaligned with human values and interests, able to cause chaos and catastrophe either deliberately or (often) despite efforts to make them safe.”

Sarasin expressed similar concerns, encouraging executives in attendance at the Midwinter Conference to be thoughtful and deliberate about how their companies deploy AI and other advanced technologies.

“Here’s the crux of the matter for me as we move deeper into our technological age and have more salient conversations about the guardrails, governance and proper swim lanes of AI capabilities,” she said. “We must ensure they remain human-centric so that we control AI and don’t allow AI to control us. Like our success lessons from the past have taught us, we’re most successful when our changes have both business benefits and a definitive consumer value.”

If it adheres to those principles while applying AI, the grocery industry stands to realize significant benefits on multiple fronts. Among other things, AI promises to make business and store operations more efficient, enhance demand forecasting and omnichannel fulfillment, and personalize offers for consumers.

“As we stand on the precipice of mega-technology, viewing all the known and as-yet-unknown applications machine learning now offers or is anticipated to offer in the future, I remain convinced that our future must remain informed by our past and by our ongoing commitment to the betterment of our customers and communities,” asserted Sarasin (who later revealed that FMI will utilize the technology to make the vast amount of research about the supermarket business that it has in hand more accessible to members). “The potential is awe inspiring, with its impact creating billions or trillions of dollars in economic value. If our customers can readily identify ‘what’s in it for them,’ we will be applying AI capabilities in a way that uplifts individuals and families and helps to address our broader societal goals.”

Often viewed as a laggard in the technology arena, the food industry has some important assets that should give it an edge going forward. Those strengths were highlighted during a discussion between Doug Baker, FMI’s vice president of industry relations, and Jose Luis-Gomes, managing director of retail and consumer at Google Cloud.

“Grocery gets a hard rap sometimes in terms of where we are from a technology perspective,” Luis-Gomes said. “What I would tell you is the future’s here, it’s just unevenly distributed. In some pockets, AI has been around in the grocery industry for many, many years.

“I started my career at dunn­humby in the mid ’90s when we were doing mass personalization for the first time. The supply chain has had AI embedded into it for a tremendous amount of time. So compared to other industries, grocery is actually doing very well. The grocery industry at large has adopted technology fairly quickly, and we’re in a very good place because of the data richness in our industry. Compared to many others, we actually have a phenomenal foundation to really apply AI at scale.”