AI in Consumer Food Choices

Below is an excerpt from Stephanie Sekulovska’s article, “AI now creates your meal plans at this shopping centre. Is it worth it?”

The article was originally published in The Australian on 27 March 2025. Read the full article  

Janet McColl-Kennedy, Professor of Marketing at The University of Queensland’s Business School and Program Leader at Australia’s Food and Beverage Accelerator, says that customers’ food choices can be greatly enhanced through AI as “it has the potential to satisfy cognitive needs and reduce decision inertia”.

Decision inertia affects customers when there are just so many choices to be made relating to food. Is there too much gluten? How many saturated fats are in this? What are the total calories?

“When there are multiple decisions to be made in a short amount of time such as at the supermarket, it can be overwhelming for a consumer.”

“Filtering methods provided by AI in the form of recommendations can reduce the cognitive burden on consumers,” she says, “it is important that they’re given the choice to set their particular tastes and preferences among the options in the different food groups.”

While not claiming to be optimised for health outcomes, The Market Pavilion’s AI tool has bespoke elements that can make it a useful guide for customers. The recipe generator also caters to dietary requirements so customers can input preferences for low FODMAP, gluten free, low sodium or vegan meals.