In past decades, the best ways to increase your company's value were understandable but difficult. You can increase your revenue, reduce costs, increase your market dominance, increase margins, improve the quality of your products, reduce customer churn, Can increase customer stickiness, etc.
In 2024, you have a new, much simpler option. Just slap “AI” on whatever you're selling, and if you don't get VCs with open wallets, at least you'll get a ton of free press — especially if the idea takes off. It's kind of stupid.
I'm saying this because I love Finnish boutique coffee brewers Kaffa and AI company Elev, who created 'Al-conic;' Falling into the co-op coffee trap. What they describe as “an amazing AI-powered coffee blend.” They even have the surreal, computer-generated animated visuals that have become commonplace on any AI product website.
To portray the idea in the most generous way; Kaffa Roastery is a very famous coffee roaster from Helsinki in Finland. The country consumes more coffee per capita than any other place, and Kaffa is one of their best roasters, selecting the highest quality beans and preparing them for their local customers and international e-shopper coffees. Is. The fans.
For this joint release, they've incorporated AI into the process, submitting all of their bean descriptions to a ChatGPT-like chatbot and then predicting what the perfect blend should be. Instead of a typical two-bean mix, allowing you to easily tell the distinct flavors of each, the chatbot instead created a four-bean blend; 40 percent from Fazenda Pinhal from Brazil, 10 percent from Ethiopia Giroc, and then the final 25 percent from San Lorenzo from Colombia and La Bolsa from Guatemala.
As a former bartender, I've used AI to create recipes before, and adding lots of ingredients is a weird AI quirk I've found. The result is usually most unusual, and sometimes spectacularly bad. However, according to the team behind it, the beans that customers receive is the exact same mix as suggested by the AI. That there was no need for any change in it.
Kafa sent me two bags—ground and bean-shaped—and after trying both, I can understand why they were happy. Surprisingly, it doesn't have a distinct personality – it doesn't taste like a particular region – but this medium roast coffee is exceptionally easy to drink, with light sweet fruit and light chocolate hints.
In his explanation, it's an example of how AI can push creative boundaries, and find combinations that humans can't. It may be so; Or that they're working with an incredible quality of ingredients to start with, that can't go too wrong when mixed, and lucked out with the end result. Simply put, given the reputation of their other pods, the AI doesn't seem to be doing anything exceptionally well here.
Except, of course, to get more earned media. If so, well done.