As tech conglomerates and lenders call on AI dealers to pump their breaks, I believe another emerging technology, Heinz Remix, warrants close scrutiny.
At first, Heinz Remix just seems like a mix-n-match soda dispenser – for sauce. Yet there is much more going on beneath the surface. This is about responsibilityin sauces.
Kraft Heinz said yesterday that the machine will give people the “power to personalize their sauces like never before”. It follows a two-step process – select a base (for now: ketchup, ranch, 57 steak sauce and BBQ) plus one or more “amps” (for now: jalapeño, smoky chipotle, buffalo, and mango). The amplifiers can each be adjusted via three “intensity levels” (low, medium and high). Kraft Heinz in a statement.
Chipotle ketchup is well-trodden territory, but Heinz claims its touchscreen dispenser will deliver “200 potential sauce combinations” when it debuts at the National Restaurant Association Show in Chicago in 2023. among them the gruesome (mango ranch) and the superfluous (chipotle steak sauce). But what’s the point here (other than the potential for a sauce”cemetery“) is what Heinz plans to do after the dippers go down. To put it mildly, “it’s more than a sauce dispenser,” said Alan Kleinerman, the vice president of DISRUPTION at Kraft Heinz.
“It’s an insight engine and business model enablement engine,” the director clarified in a statement. According to Kleinerman, the Machine does switch $47.75 billion sauce giant to “understand and respond to consumer trends and taste preferences live.” (Emphasis: TechCrunch).
“Who knows,” Smallerman added, “maybe our next new sauce combo will come from a superfan using HEINZ REMIX!”
In other words, while we’re not sure what sauces will come out of the Heinz Remix, one thing’s for sure: When Heinz tests the technology with restaurants later this year, the company will do some dipping of its own — collecting bits of sauce data from unsuspecting diners. Leaves us with a crucial question unanswered: who makes the saucier sauce?
