Case Study: Kerry Group

Kerry Group turns 50 years of science into an instant AI idea engine

How Kerry Group is using generative AI to make decades of food science, insights and expertise easier to access, apply and share.

• 30 seconds to generate a concept
• Days or weeks reduced to real-time customer discussion
• 50+ years of food science and insight made easier to access

Every product on a supermarket shelf started as an idea. At food ingredients multinational Kerry, that’s been part of the job for decades. 

The company has worked with food and beverage brands for over 50 years across 50 countries, helping them shape their next product before it reaches a menu or shopping trolley.

Now, Kerry is doing things differently by using generative AI to turn its expertise into new ideas in seconds.

Cutting creation time

Previously, when a customer came to Kerry with a brief for, say, a new soft drink for a particular market, the company would turn to its food scientists and creative teams to develop concepts. 

“It could take hours, days or weeks to come up with a list of ideas,” says Ben Hallinan, VP Commercial Digital Enablement Lead.

But, in a market where consumer tastes shift all the time, speed matters. 

“In North America, the products that appear from quarter to quarter or half year to half year can be significantly different,” says Hallinan.

Coming up with KerryKalaido

Hallinan’s role sits across sales, marketing and R&D teams, looking for ways technology can help them do their existing work better, or compete harder. Back in late 2023, as interest in generative AI was growing, that search turned to what the technology could mean for Kerry.

“We looked at whether we could streamline formulation, actually combining ingredients together,” he says. “But then we thought about the thing we’re already really good at: initial concept work. So, we started exploring if generative AI could speed that up.”

As the idea developed, Kerry used Enterprise Ireland as a sounding board, pressure-testing the feasibility, approach and value proposition before moving further. That support helped keep the focus on a clear business process, rather than using AI for its own sake.

For client companies shaping an AI or digital project, supports such as Strategic Consultancy can help assess feasibility, build confidence and plan the next step.

The result is KerryKalaido, a tool built within Microsoft Teams that generates a full product concept (including its name, flavour strategy and business case) from consumer insights in seconds. Users can iterate in real-time, narrowing hundreds of directions down to two or three before handing them to Kerry’s labs to build physical prototypes.

Taste, Hallinan is quick to point out, still needs a human. “We’re not trying to replace what the human does,” he says. “As an organisation that’s existed for over 50 years, we’re sitting on a wealth of knowledge, some of it in our systems and some of it in the heads of our people,” he says. “AI can help amplify that knowledge and make it accessible.”

Putting AI directly into customers' hands

KerryKalaido has been used to successfully create and launch beverages in North America, and now acts as a starting point for producing snacks and beverages across global markets. 

For companies ready to apply AI to a defined business process, Enterprise Ireland’s Digital Process Innovation support can help with larger digital transformation and process improvement projects.

So what’s next for Kerry? The company is considering a self-service portal, giving customers direct access to explore and generate their own concepts.

Kerry is also applying AI to sensory and analytical data to help predict tastes and testing role-specific AI assistants that can surface relevant historical work to employees.

“What's important is that we’re not doing technology for the sake of technology,” Hallinan says. “It’s about an existing process we have, and how we use that technology to get real value out of the knowledge we’ve built as an organisation, in a way that's meaningful for our people and our customers.”

Asked what advice he'd give to a much smaller business just starting to think about AI, Hallinan keeps it simple. "First, just try it,” he says. “Understand the business problem you're trying to solve, then think about how a new tool doesn't just solve it, but helps you reimagine the process altogether.”

For Kerry, the real win isn't just a faster process. It’s a wider one: putting more than five decades of accumulated expertise into more hands, faster.

Have an AI or digital idea you want to test? Speak to your Enterprise Ireland Client Advisor about the guidance and funding supports that may be right for your business.

Explore AI supports

Shape your idea

Use Strategic Consultancy to explore feasibility, build a business case and plan the right next step.

Test before you invest

Explore supports such as the Innovation Voucher or Exploring Innovation Grant to help develop and validate new ideas.

Scale process innovation

For larger digital transformation projects, Digital Process Innovation can help businesses improve processes through new digital technologies.