AI (artificial intelligence) technologies have exploded in the last few years and seem to be constantly evolving for the everyday consumer: Search engines all employ AI assistants, every online meeting platform has AI helping with live transcription, and ecommerce has AI working hard behind the scenes on everything from customer demographics to algorithm optimization. It’s infiltrated our casual lives for sure, but beyond that AI can be felt more and more strongly in manufacturing spaces, and pet food is no different.
Of course, being able to discuss AI means understanding what it is, which can be a tricky prospect all its own.
“Unfortunately, AI has become an overused term to describe any time a computer is being used to help make decisions,” said Tara Zedayko, chief scientific officer of Ollie, a premium fresh pet food company that also has a personalized pet health component to its nutritional offerings. “At its foundation, AI is meant to provide us humans with tools to think and perform faster than it takes to find and access the appropriate expertise to answer a question or perform a task.”
So, what tools is AI providing in the pet food space?
Pet food manufacturing: Operations efficiencies, workforce empowerment and food safety
There are several ways AI is currently being tested in pet food manufacturing, with plenty of options to make things more efficient, more effective and safer.
“The most valuable AI applications in food manufacturing today aren’t the flashiest, they’re the ones helping companies turn operational knowledge into effective action,” said Nick Haase, co-founder and go-to-market at MaintainX, a company providing AI-powered asset maintenance to a variety of industries. “With the food industry facing unprecedented challenges around food safety, quality control and workforce evolution, the companies seeing real results are those using AI to enhance how work gets done, not just analyze data.”
According to Haase, particular impact is currently seen in three areas: Food safety monitoring, quality control and work execution.
“AI excels at analyzing patterns across multiple data streams — temperature logs, quality measurements, maintenance records, worker observations — and translating those insights into clear, actionable steps for frontline teams,” he said. “When something needs attention, AI helps ensure the right work gets done at the right time by the right person.”
Those working in pet food could stand to benefit directly from companies using AI technologies to streamline their systems, according to experts.
“At the forefront of pet food manufacturing, AI is revolutionizing frontline workforce empowerment, especially in streamlining training, supporting standard work and overall productivity,” said Yannick Haeck, vice president of product at Poka Inc., which provides connected worker platforms for manufacturers. “Many of our customers in the industry, such as Purina and Royal Canin, are using AI to establish and enforce consistent standards across their global teams. Pet food manufacturing requires stringent adherence to safety, quality and operational standards. However, ensuring that these standards are followed precisely across different languages and regions has historically been challenging.
“AI is transforming pet food manufacturing by empowering frontline workers through advanced content creation and management with multilingual support,” said Haeck. “One of the most impactful applications is AI-powered content transformation. Manufacturing environments rely heavily on standardized procedures and work instructions, but creating or converting this content into accessible, clear digital formats can be time-consuming and resource-intensive. AI helps streamline this process, rapidly transforming lengthy operating procedures into easy-to-follow digital work instructions, reducing deployment times and enabling quicker access to vital knowledge.”
Naturally, product safety is a key place where manufacturers are looking to implement AI.
“AI-powered quality systems detect defects, consistently grade products and identify contaminants better than ever, significantly enhancing quality assurance in pet food production while improving efficiency,” said Neeley Bowden, manager of special services at BSM Partners, which assists with product development and operations support. “This means we can continuously provide the best quality products to pets and their parents.”
In fact, if AI has had time to settle anywhere in pet food, it’s probably food safety-related — arguably the first place manufacturers would look to supplement their operations.
“Analytic predictions have been around for a while in some form or another, so I think they’re probably doing the most good in pet food production today,” said Matt Lueger, executive vice president of sales and marketing at NorthWind Technical Services, which specializes in industrial controls and automation. “They have had more time to evolve and refine, with recent advances in AI making these predictions even better. In addition to predictive maintenance and processing predictions, manufacturers are utilizing them to accurately predict product quality like moisture and density.”
Pet nutrition and health
Another prime opportunity for AI to step in is in pet nutrition and health.
“When it comes to nutrition, AI is revolutionizing pet food by allowing nutritionists, veterinarians and formulators to create tailored diets based on age, breed and health conditions,” said Bowden. “With this ability, there is no longer a need for a one-size-fits-all approach. We can precisely formulate to an animal’s specific nutrient requirements without over-formulating to accommodate those with higher nutrient requirements. We can utilize fewer resources regarding ingredients, which certainly has environmental merits as well. Formulation can even be integrated with real-time monitoring through wearable pet health devices and smart feeders, ensuring nutritional content is optimized for each pet’s specific needs.”
AI has potential for even more nuanced pet health research.
“As someone focused on research, and particularly GI health, AI is already helping us make strides in identifying patterns in the bacterial communities that surround us and our pets,” said Anne Ballou, technical director for Siwa, an expert in animal health biotechnology research. “There are literally thousands of interconnected relationships between our pets and their microbes, and machine learning has been crucial to the study of these complex ecologies. Some new methods are focused more on explainable results and less on ‘black box’ types of AI or machine learning. In terms of health research, this type of methodology is equipping scientists like my team to assign quantifiable values to little-known microbes.”
The veterinary space also has room for AI.
“Outside of direct pet feedback, AI is also helping veterinary practices become more efficient by automating the mundane, repetitive tasks and allowing experts to focus on the most important and challenging parts of their specialty,” said Zedayko. “AI-powered platforms can manage pet records, behavioral assessments and more.”
The future of AI in pet food manufacturing
It’s clear that AI has a lot of potential fertile ground in the pet food space, and it’s only a matter of testing various technologies to see where it might best plant itself.
“In the pet food industry, and really all manufacturing, the typical ERP and MES platforms will look much different in the future,” said Lueger. “I can see a time when all of the software tools you’re currently using in your operation will have AI co-pilots that work together. Imagine daily or even real-time notifications that help you optimize inventory management, logistical routing, formulation costs, process center-lining, etc. All of the tasks that currently take experienced staff hours, days or even weeks of analyzing reports and spreadsheets will be pared down to minutes.”
Things will naturally evolve as manufacturers figure out what works for them.
“We can expect more sophisticated applications as the industry adopts AI more broadly,” said Bowden. “AI will continue to refine precision nutrition systems, reducing food waste and improving animal health not only for pets but also for production animals. By enhancing the efficiency of large-scale food animal operations, we can improve the sustainability of our own food supply and what goes into our pet’s diet. AI’s role in manufacturing is expected to grow beyond end-line tasks, encompassing every production stage, including challenging areas like high-meat formulas and new diet formats. Lastly, AI will play a vital role in making alternative protein sources more affordable and sustainable, helping the pet food industry transition away from traditional meat sources through the ability to find cost-effective, safe ingredients through AI-driven R&D.”
It’s important to ensure, however, that AI never takes the place of valuable human work and insights.
“AI’s goal should always be to scale the tasks that are boring, mundane, repetitive or require immediate action, so the humans can focus on the most important, creative or challenging parts of the workflow,” said Zedayko. “I like to think that AI is a tool, and never a replacement for authentic human connection and experience. The best AI is ‘invisible’ and makes the experience even better.”
AI in pet food formulation: A developing technology
According to Ian Mealey, product marketing director – formulation at Format Solutions, which provides formulation and feed ERP software, AI in the formulation space is still finding its place in pet food.
Read more: www.PetfoodIndustry.com/15707926