The new AI-connected food and beverage worker is not only overcoming problems caused by skilled worker shortages but is making #BlueCollar work appealing for Gen Z. Yannick Haeck, Chief Product Officer, Poka, explains.
Faced with a shortage of skilled workers, attracting Gen Z workers to the food and beverage manufacturing shop floor, which has traditionally been seen as dull, dirty, or dangerous (the three Ds of manufacturing), has proven an ongoing challenge. Then along came Gen AI, with new tech such as AV and VR that has transformed the traditional shop floor into a productive – and cool – place to work.
Not only is Gen AI in food and beverage manufacturing a win for workers, but it is also a win for CPG companies globally, where Gen AI use cases could increase the economic impact of traditional AI by 15 to 40%. Deloitte finds that users in the UK are optimistic that GenAI can help businesses improve their products and services (71%) and, critically, create better work experiences for employees (70%) – and Gen AI brings great promise to enhance workflow among increasingly connected workforces.
Here’s what these AI tools can achieve to sustain and inspire the food and beverage workforce.
1. AI aids workflows with intelligent content transformation
Food and beverage manufacturers need to work to the highest standards. With the global AI in food and beverages market valued at approximately £10.07 billion to £13.61 billion in 2026, with Europe (led by the U.K. and Germany) contributing about 25% of the global market share. That means training, and reskilling frontline workers with different levels of knowledge and language is vital while keeping practices health and safety compliant for the new tech-enabled manufacturing era.
But creating digestible work instructions takes a lot of time and capital. And it’s not all about new content. CPG factories will already have thousands of existing content files such as standard operating procedures and work instructions but converting each one into an easily accessible location is also costly and time intensive.
According to a global Lenovo survey of 600 IT leaders, 79% feel AI will free employees to focus on more meaningful work—which is key in an industry where deadlines are tight and produce has a shelf life. The full value of connected work can take time to materialise due to the time and effort required to import and build the required digital work instructions into the platform. Here comes AI to the rescue!
2. Delivering work instructions in multi-media form
Streamlining the creation of each type of content using AI-powered content transformation will drastically reduce the time it takes to provide digital or written instructions in one secure location. The ability to quickly convert documents into comprehendible digital work instructions will reduce deployment times, allowing for faster time to value. Especially when video is fast becoming one of the most consumed forms of content, specifically for Gen Z. In fact, 83% of users in the UK and US want brands to use video more to communicate with them.
So, when it comes to creating digital work instructions, companies shouldn’t overlook the power of video to improve user engagement. But creating video-based instructions is a challenge particularly for factories that lack sufficient financial and human resources.
Here AI-powered video instructions changes this. It can pull out relevant information and sequence it into structured written steps. Images can provide visual context at each step. This helps improve troubleshooting as operators can access a broader library of content. Younger workers can also benefit from the knowledge of senior operators in a way that engages them and meets their new workplace expectations.
3. Tearing down language barriers with multilingual transcription
One in five (21.3%) manufacturing workers were born outside the UK, and this varied within the manufacturing industries. Two in five who work in the manufacturing of food products (40.4%) are migrants, and the majority of these workers will not speak English as their first language. Despite this, most food and beverage manufacturers struggle to ensure that critical operational content is available in every language of their diverse workforce. But not anymore! AI-powered transcription can break down language barriers and encourage worker inclusion—by translating all types of content into the required language.
What makes AI-driven transcription useful over human translators, is speed. Gen AI tools can translate recordings in a matter of minutes as opposed to hours. This is an intelligent capability that automatically translates the audio from videos into relevant subtitles in the preferred language of the user. Not only does this reduce the effort to create and maintain content, but it also improves the comprehension and retention of information leading to better safety, quality, and productivity on the shop floor.
4. Intent-powered search to meet user demands
Concise communication is key to helping improve worker and team productivity. When you’re working in a fast-paced and loud manufacturing environment, errors are naturally going to happen. But what if workers had a tool that could intelligently interpret the user’s input, and beautify it by automatically improving its grammar, vocabulary, and punctuation to ensure optimal readability.
AI can empower workers to work smarter, not harder by providing them with intelligent search capabilities that not only grasp their inquiry’s intent, but also adapt to human nuances like typos or vague terms. This ensures quick and accurate responses to inquiries like how to troubleshoot a broken mixing machine with a jammed mechanism. AI makes sure they are presented with the right information at the right time.
Transformative power is in the AI of the beholder
The processing manufacturing industry’s future is intertwined with long-term integration AI, and Gen AI is here to help in the functions of food and beverage manufacturing, including as connected worker instructions. While different technologies continue to expand, so does the number of food and beverage manufacturers embedding or looking to embed AI into processes.
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