The Institute of Food Technologists (IFT) will host a free webinar on August 26, from 1 to 2 p.m. CT, examining practical applications of AI across the food innovation lifecycle. The session will cover how to identify high-value use cases, launch AI initiatives, and integrate AI into existing product development and production workflows.
The webinar, sponsored by CoDeveloper and Datacor, will also address the organizational, technical, and workforce factors that determine whether AI implementation succeeds. Attendees will leave with actionable guidance for moving from discussion to deployment.
Who's speaking
The panel brings together practitioners from food manufacturing, technology development, and enterprise software:
- Jay Gilbert, PhD, director of CoDeveloper and digital products at IFT, who led the launch of the organization's AI-enabled R&D platform for food and beverage innovation.
- Jeffrey Varcoe, PhD, vice president of quality assurance and food safety at The JM Smucker Company, responsible for QA and food safety programs across roughly 20 manufacturing facilities and the broader supply chain.
- Traci Curran, director of product marketing at Datacor, where she focuses on helping process manufacturers manage regulatory and traceability demands.
Varcoe has served on the IFT Board of Directors since 2023 and becomes IFT president-elect on September 1.
Why IFT is hosting this now
"As AI continues to reshape how we work, IFT is committed to being at the forefront of these conversations and helping our community navigate what that change means in practice," said IFT CEO Christie Tarantino-Dean. "By bringing together experts who are utilizing AI, we can help food system professionals move from conversation to application and better understand how these tools can strengthen their work and advance food innovation."
The session reflects a broader shift in food R&D, where companies are testing AI for formulation, ingredient discovery, and quality control. For product developers, the practical question is no longer whether AI will affect their work, but which workflows benefit first and what it takes to get there. Those questions map directly to the skills covered in AI Learning Path for Product Managers.
What attendees will get
The webinar will share lessons learned from real implementation efforts, including what worked, what didn't, and how teams structured their AI rollouts. Panelists will discuss how to evaluate AI tools against existing product development processes and where the highest-return opportunities tend to sit.
That includes practical guidance on team readiness. The session will cover the workforce considerations that often make or break AI projects - from training needs to changes in how R&D and operations teams collaborate. For developers evaluating their own organizations, the discussion offers a benchmark for what successful adoption looks like. More resources on applying these tools to formulation and development work are available under AI for Product Development.
Why this matters for product developers
Food product development runs on iteration: test a formulation, evaluate results, adjust, repeat. AI tools are beginning to compress that cycle, but only when teams understand where the tools fit and what they can actually deliver. This webinar gives product developers a chance to hear how peer organizations are handling that transition, including the mistakes to avoid and the infrastructure required to support it. Registration is free and open to IFT members and non-members.
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