Ice cream chain Baskin-Robbins launches AI lab in Seoul to develop ‘innovative’ varieties
- Brand also launched a hybrid-type store with a research lab that tests new flavour options
- Outlet runs a recipe system that creates new flavours via ChatGPT and visualises what the end product might be like
A new Baskin-Robbins store in Seoul features flavours created by a new AI-based product development system. Photo: ShutterstockInternational ice cream chain Baskin-Robbins has launched a new store in Seoul that features the company’s exclusive ice cream flavours created by a new artificial intelligence (AI)-based product development system, according to the brand operator BR Korea.
The company on the same day opened Workshop by Baskin-Robbins on the first floor of its building in central Seoul. It is the brand’s new hybrid-type store that is not only a shop but also a research lab that tests new flavours and introduces them to consumers for the first time.
The store runs an AI NPD (new product development) model, a recipe system that creates new flavours via ChatGPT and visualises what the end product of the various flavours might be like.
The company said that the store will exclusively introduce a new “deep flavour” every month, which will be created by the system’s big data-deep learning AI.
“The new store is at the forefront of our chain, introducing new flavours that are developed by next-generation technologies and confirming public reception on those innovative flavours faster than any of our stores,” a company official said. “The R&D centre will guide us to our future.”
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The new store’s exclusive flavours include Wasabi, Creme Brulee, Greentea Orange Jasmine and Greentea Earl Grey. The flavours were created after the company analysed the big data of 23 million users of Happy Point, the brand’s point-reward membership programme, which is also shared by other brands under the company’s mother company SPC Group. A line-up of Egg Cakes in the shape of different animals, fruit and characters is another of the store’s product groups unavailable anywhere else.
To further boost the store’s innovativeness, the company plans to introduce within the first half of this year a new docent programme featuring a clerk posing as an ice cream docent called a “doctor.” Doctors will give visitors a private tour by recommending flavours based on their interests and also share stories related to the flavour choices of consumers and the company.