Conagra Brands harnesses AI to fuel innovation

The snack brand is looking to the tech to enhance brand, supply chain, and other areas.

Photo: Tara Winstead/Pexels

Conagra Brands has announced it is advancing its artificial intelligence solutions through a human-centered approach that prioritizes responsible use of AI across the company. By putting employees at the center of its AI strategy, Conagra reportedly aims to drive efficiencies by leveraging innovative tools to develop, optimize, and reimagine its capabilities. This approach is intended to empower employees with resources that accelerate decision-making, efficiently synthesize large data sets, and enable growth.

Conagra is utilizing generative AI, intelligent automation, and strategic collaboration with Microsoft and EY to enhance its IT, Supply Chain, R&D, Demand Science, Brand, and Design operations. Examples include:

Fueling employee empowerment and productivity: By utilizing Microsoft technology solutions, such as Microsoft Power Platform and Azure OpenAI Service, Conagra employees utilize agile tools to drive productivity and automate routine tasks. In addition, the company has tested new solutions to solve more complex manual processes within its production facilities. For example, Conagra and Microsoft joined forces for a two-day hackathon to develop new automated product labeling procedures to improve the accuracy of key information found on product labels, aiding traceability and quality assurance.
Enhancing AI-driven branding solutions: Conagra and EY are exploring the potential of generative AI models to develop branded imagery to support marketing and advertising projects. The teams are evaluating existing design processes and product images, fine-tuning datasets, and training AI models to create images that can be tailored to specific brand requirements. This initiative aims to scale, accelerate, and streamline the content creation process through iterative collaboration with the Conagra team.

"As we implement new solutions available to us through collaborations and emerging technologies, we are not only realizing measurable results now but identifying opportunities for future growth," says Azeem Kapadia, senior director of AI strategy at Conagra Brands. "These new digital capabilities will benefit our entire team, sharpen our focus, and better shape how we operate and innovate throughout Conagra."

This work complements Conagra's existing AI initiatives, which include analyzing complex data systems that track consumer preferences and emerging trends to help inform product innovation, addressing demand challenges by understanding consumption trends and consumer behaviors and tracking processes across the supply chain to provide greater visibility into shipments and identify loss prevention opportunities.

"We have established a strong technology foundation that enables our employees to identify, prioritize, and build fast and flexible solutions powered by AI for the benefit of the entire company," says Tracy Schaefer, senior vice president and chief information officer at Conagra Brands. "These initiatives, which blend IT and business strategy, will help Conagra introduce new dynamic approaches for our business and respond quickly to industry trends."

Conagra Brands is on the current Snack Food & Wholesale Bakery “Top 50 Snack & Bakery Companies” list. Click here to view the current “Top 50” rankings.

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Jenni Spinner is the chief editor of Snack Food and Wholesale with more than 25 years of experience in business-to-business communications. She has written extensively about food production, safety and packaging; pharmaceutical drug development; concrete and masonry construction; and more. She holds a Bachelor’s in Communications from the University of Illinois. Jenni can be reached at spinnerj@bnpmedia.com.

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