AI in the kitchen: the future of food or recipe for disaster?

AI’s impact on everyday life continues. 

Here we’re digging into how consumers in the US and the UK feel about using AI tools for anything food related. AI’s application for the food and beverage industry covers everything from meal planning to recipe suggestions and grocery shopping. 

To dig into the date for yourself, take a look at our interactive dashboard.

TL;DR summary

• AI adoption in food: 63.8% of consumers have used AI-powered tools for food-related activities, with the UK ahead of the US. Younger people are the most engaged.
• Recipe recommendations are most popular: Consumers are most comfortable with AI suggesting recipes. 
• Concerns over automated grocery shopping: This is the least trusted AI feature, with just under half comfortable using it. More men than women are comfortable with it.
• Key benefits of AI in food: Consumers value discovering new recipes, convenience, and saving time. 
• Biggest concerns: Data privacy and security top the list, followed by lack of human touch and over-reliance on tech.
• Surprise insight on younger consumers: 18-24s are more concerned about losing human touch than data privacy, contradicting common assumptions about their digital preferences.

Current usage levels of AI in food

Our data shows that 63.8% of people have used AI-powered tools for food-related activities. 

In an early plot twist, it looks like Brits are more clued into AI tools than Americans – 66.8% of Brits have used AI tools, compared to just 60.8% of Americans. Typically we might think that the US is slightly ahead of the UK on tech adoption, but that may not be the case. 

Unsurprisingly, we see a correlation between age and usage of AI: 74% of 18-24s have used AI. This percentage decreases for every subsequent age group. 

AI recipe recommendations are a winner

When asked how comfortable they are with AI tools helping them with a range of food tasks, recipe recommendations came out on top in both markets. 

In the US, 71.2% said they’d be comfortable with AI-recommended recipes, and 75.9% of Brits said the same. 

When we followed up by asking how likely people would be to try AI tools in the future, recipe recs came out top again:

• Recipe recommendations based on available ingredients (69.3% are likely to try this)
• Smart grocery shopping suggestions (58.9% are likely to try this)
• Personalized meal planning (58.5% are likely to try this) 

Automated online grocery shopping is the tool consumers would be least comfortable with. Just 48.7% of Americans would be comfortable with it, with 27.8% saying they’d actually be uncomfortable with it. In the UK, 49.1% would be comfortable with it and 28.7% would be uncomfortable. 

One interesting gender split appears when we dig into the people who are comfortable with automated online grocery shopping. Across both markets, males are more comfortable – 53.5% say this – compared with just 44.5% of females. 

The benefits of AI tools for food

Consumers in both the US and the UK said discovering new recipes and foods was their top benefit of using AI for food-related decisions. Just over half (50.5%) of Americans and just under half (49.2%) of Brits chose this. 

The top benefits consumer chose were:

• Discovering new recipes and foods (49.8% across both markets)
• Convenience and ease (47.7%)
• Saving time on meal planning and shopping (44.8%)

Towards the bottom of the benefit list was using AI for sticking to a healthier diet, although there are some international nuances here. In the UK, 37.5% of consumers said this would be a benefit; in the US, just 30.1% chose this. 

Data privacy is people’s biggest concern

People are most concerned about data privacy and security when it comes to AI-powered food tools. 

Nearly half (47.7% in the US and 45.8% in the UK) chose this as their top concern, showing that AI tool providers must give consumers peace of mind that their data is safe if they use their products. 

The top concerns consumers in both markets had were:

• Data privacy and security (45.8% in the UK; 47.7% in the US) 
• Lack of human touch-personalization (40.4% in the UK; 37.8% in the US)
• Over-reliance on technology (38.6% in the UK; 34.9% in the US)

Young people care most about the human touch

We found that 18-24-year-olds show more concern about the lack of human touch/personalization than other age groups. 

Common opinion would dictate that tech-savvy young people are less interested in human interaction and the personal touch, but this data contradicts that. Almost half (45.5%) of 18-24s said this concerned them, which is almost +5pp higher than any other age group. 

In fact, the 18-24s group deems the lack of human touch a bigger concern even than data privacy. This is definitely something for the AI tool companies to consider in their product development and messaging.