Pepsi is growing potatoes with AI. You heard that right! It is the parent company of the Coke brand. In a large expanse of farmland, Pepsi sensors are analyzing local weather data, potato growth, and other data. Then, through the ML algorithm, suggestions such as sowing depth, watering amount, and fertilization amount are obtained and given to local farmers. It's not even a show. PepsiCo has promoted this strategy to North America, South America, and Europe, providing farmers with more than one million key data suggestions. So, why is Pepsi doing this?
How did you grow potatoes when you made your fortune from Coke?
Pepsi uses AI to grow potatoes, and the most typical landing country is Mexico. The local area is dry and water-scarce, but agricultural water consumption is nearly 80%, but a large number of potatoes must be supplied to American customers. PepsiCo worked with a team called CropX to place sensors in potato fields to monitor the weather conditions of the planting cycle, combined with their trained algorithms, to guide farmers to control the amount of water for drip irrigation and pivot irrigation.
In addition to watering, the system also provides farmers with more suggestions, including sowing depth, fertilization amount, how to protect crops at specific nodes...etc. Based on the control group experiment at the beginning of the project, they also confirmed that after applying the above-mentioned technology, not only the water and fertilizer consumption was reduced by 15%, but the yield increased instead.
As for why help people grow potatoes?
The official statement is to reduce carbon emissions and achieve efficient and sustainable development. But the root cause, of course, is not that simple. PepsiCo not only produces Coke but is also the world's top potato processed food manufacturer. Its brands include Lay's Potato Chips, Cheetos, and Dole Crisps. Because of mastering the downstream, Pepsi has strong control over the potato supply chain, they can promote irrigation technology, and they can also control seed varieties. In 2019, several Indian farmers were sued by the company for using the special potato varieties of Lay's Potato Chips without permission, demanding payment of 1.05 million rupees each.
Implementing AI technology on the potato planting side can not only obtain higher-quality raw materials, but also help farmers save money and improve planting efficiency, further integrate their own supply chain, and win a good reputation by the way. For Pepsi, of course, it belongs to one fish and one food.
Not only growing potatoes but using AI
Looking through the public information, we can see that PepsiCo has applied AI to all aspects. Keep talking about potatoes. They have a set of visual algorithms that can observe the potato peeling process and input the percentage of peeling to the whole potato. After training, this algorithm can calculate a set of optimal peeling methods and thickness to optimize the peeling process. Its in-house engineers estimate that the AI application could save the company more than $1 million a year just by deploying it to work in the United States.
AI is also used to check the quality of potatoes. In the Pepsi potato chip factory, they applied a machine vision system with cameras as sensors to calculate the size, weight, and quantity of potatoes. In this way, weighing equipment can be saved. After all, the price of a weighing component on each assembly line is as high as 300,000 dollars. It can also be used as basic data to evaluate the material flow and production efficiency on the production line. What's more interesting is that they also irradiated potato chips with laser light and relied on reflected waves to detect internal texture and quality.
AI technology is also applied in the production of puffed food and beverages such as Cheetos, factory safety compliance inspection and protection, and many other aspects. AI is also used in the sales process. PepsiCo has a cloud-based data collection and analysis platform called Pep Worx, which provides advice on inventory, retail sales, and promotions. For example, when a company wants to launch an oatmeal product, it can identify 24 million target consumer households out of 110 million US households. According to its public figures, the analytics platform drove an 80% increase in sales 12 months after its launch.
Even with automatic driving, Pepsi has used it
They have an autonomous delivery vehicle called the Snack-Bot, a six-wheeled self-driving delivery vehicle that can travel 20 miles on a single charge, even at night when it rains.
Function: It mainly provides snacks and drinks under the brand for college students. When students place an order through the app, it will deliver the goods to the designated delivery point without delivery fees.
In addition to PepsiCo, other food giants are also applying AI.
Pepsi's rival, Coca-Cola has tried to feed the full-link data of 60 vending machines to the AI algorithm since 2014, allowing it to generate distribution suggestions. Its transaction volume increased by 15%, and the number of replenishments decreased by 18%. They also used CNN technology to achieve higher-precision OCR. When consumers exchange for another bottle, it can be completed online, and there is no need to talk to the owner of the canteen.
A team named Tomra has made a French fries analysis machine, which can tell whether the length of French fries meets the requirements (such as 3-4 inches) on the production line, and separate out the products that do not meet the requirements.
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