ITC leverages AI for spotting consumer trends & product development
Fast-Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) major ITC Limited is leveraging Artificial Intelligence (AI) to strengthen its product portfolio by getting insights into new consumer trends. The company is also capitalising on technology throughout its product value chain.
Under pilot runs for its dairy business, the company is using AI tools to check the health of cows and technologies to evaluate the authenticity of the products by providing consumers with product report cards.
“Our consumer data hub is powered by AI engines to segment consumers at scale and understand their needs. ITC’s Sixth Sense which is our sensing engine has a team that listens to social conversations and gathers insights for all our brands. They are using AI tools to generate contextual communication for our brands. There are applications that we are yet to deploy that can provide the farmer with the health of the cows using simple AI tools. The farmer can take a picture of the cow, and scan it and it will provide information on any disease or malnutrition of the cow. We are yet to roll out the application. The company is utilizing digital technologies starting from the source,” said Sanjay Singal, Chief Operating Officer for the Dairy & Beverages cluster of ITC’s Foods to businessline.
The company that offers fresh milk and dairy products under Aashirvaad Svasti follows stringent digital scrutiny to check the quality of the milk and adulteration.
“Our fresh dairy business is in East India including Bihar, West Bengal and Jharkhand. We do not have organised farms for milk and work with nearly 13,000 farmers from whom we buy milk twice daily. We use technology wherein when the farmer comes to the village procurement centre to sell milk, we use equipment to test the basic features of the milk. We track the transport of the milk live by maintaining a temperature of four degrees throughout the supply chain from the village to the factory. To address the concern of adulteration, we have provided codes and a WhatsApp number on the milk packets wherein once entered the consumer can get the report card on the quality of the milk, he said.
Virtual farms
The Kolkata-based FMCG maker that offers organic Ghee under its Aashirvaad brand is providing consumers with a virtual tour of the farms to see the manufacturing process of their products.
“We introduced Aashirvaad Svasti’s Organic Ghee and were clear that organic is the way to go. We went across the country to get authentic organic butter and organic milk to make ghee. The consumers are provided with a QR code on the product which when scanned will give a virtual tour of the organic farm. The customers can see the health of the cows, and what the cows are fed. There are no fertilizers used in growing the fodder for the cows and no chemicals used in the cleaning process. The entire process can be seen through the virtual farms,” added Sanjay Singal.
The company also offers an organic range of Aashirvaad atta and provides consumers with the option to check the farm from which the batch of wheat was procured and then converted into atta.