Q&A with Akash Shah, Co-Founder/CEO, IngredientAI
What inspired the creation of IngredientAI, and how is it positioned to transform decision-making in the dietary supplement and functional food industries?
Akash: In 2015, I co-founded Care/of, a personalized direct-to-consumer supplement brand that we grew and sold to Bayer in 2020. Through this journey, I witnessed firsthand how long it took companies (years!) to develop and launch new products. There was a tremendous amount of reading (e.g. scientific papers, supplier technical documentation, etc.), writing (e.g. substantiation, specifications, dossier), and summation (e.g. evidence tables, supplier charts). With the onset of generative AI and large language models, it was instantly obvious to me that modern technology could have a direct and positive impact on accelerating the industry.
What do you see as the biggest challenges currently facing dietary supplement companies when it comes to ingredient innovation and compliance?
Akash: Clarity of available choices and access to critical information is a major challenge for supplement companies. In addition, ingredient innovation and compliance requires input and collaboration from multiple departments – from R&D to marketing to regulatory and quality to procurement and supply chain. The ability for teams to identify and qualify the best fit ingredient solutions for particular health benefits or platforms in a timely fashion is an ongoing challenge. Technology can make a massive difference here by helping teams instantly find ingredients and collaborate with outside vendors that match certain criteria (e.g. science, claim, price, space/amount, and more).
How can AI and data analytics play a greater role in improving transparency, traceability, and decision-making for ingredient suppliers and manufacturers?
Akash: The onset of AI and modern technology is exciting as it allows ingredient suppliers a way to efficiently share information required by manufacturers in order to develop differentiated products and meet compliance obligations. Electronic access to documentation and the ability to use AI prompts to answer key questions in the decision-making process can help companies be informed, decisive and time efficient. Data privacy is of course a major consideration and stakeholders in the industry should be particularly careful in uploading confidential data to mainstream AI providers. We take this very seriously at IngredientAI.
With so many ingredients and claims competing for attention, what strategies can brands adopt to stand out while staying compliant and credible?
Akash: Cast a wider net and evaluate more science than typical “go to” ingredients. Differentiation requires significant time discovering new ingredients or new science for existing ingredients that allow for new positioning/claim sets.
AI can help here. Its ability to read and summarize information allows for easier discovery of new ingredients, new benefits for existing ingredients, and new clinical science that can help provide new ways to differentiate products.
What strategies should companies adopt to keep up with increasing regulatory scrutiny and consumer expectations for safety and quality on a global scale?
Akash: Ultimately, answering both regulatory scrutiny and consumer expectations comes down to the quality of information supporting your products. From an efficacy standpoint, how are a brand’s claims substantiated, and what can the consumer expect as a result of taking the product? From a safety standpoint, what is the safety profile of the ingredients, and how do they comply with relevant regulations? From a quality and regulatory standpoint, what assurances are provided given the sourcing, manufacture, and third-party testing of finished products?
Technology and AI has a role to play in supporting all of the assurances to consumers and regulators. High-fidelity products start with high-fidelity ingredients, research, and ultimately formulation & testing. Technology can be leveraged to make each of these steps transparent to help ensure consumer confidence and regulatory compliance.
How important are partnerships between AI-driven platforms, ingredient suppliers, and brands in accelerating innovation and ensuring compliance?
Akash: Very important! One of the key concerns with the use of AI is data privacy and not “training” AI on one brand’s key innovation projects or proprietary supplier information. In such a highly competitive marketplace, privacy and ownership of IP is critical.
We find the best approach is to mirror the protections for brands and suppliers that exist in the industry without technology. NDA protections, ownership of development prompts by the brands formulating – these are just a few ways we ensure privacy and trust among key stakeholders in the industry.
With ongoing advancements in technology and regulation, what advice would you give to industry leaders looking to stay competitive and innovative?
Akash: Simply take the first step. Some departments are more familiar with technology and others are less so. But AI is here and can impact your business. If you’re not seeking out ways that AI can help your business, you will be losing ground to competitors who are.
We also recommend that you try multiple providers of AI to compare/contrast. Compare the answers you get from AI to what you’ve built from your old processes. Can AI do things faster but at the same quality as what you’ve done before? What parts of your process can be accelerated for time or cost savings?
How do you envision AI reshaping research, development, and commercialization for dietary supplements over the next five years?
Akash: The AI era of dietary supplements is only just beginning. The investment into the large language models that power AI is unprecedented, and how the best companies in our industry do business will certainly be very different in the next 12-18 months, let alone five years.
AI can help accelerate processes to save time and money without losing quality or fidelity of processes. It can help discover new claims and ingredients that time just didn’t allow for by humans alone. The best part is that AI can free up human resources in the industry to focus their energies on doing what they do best –– strategize, deal with incredible nuance, evaluate the best fit from available data and ingredients for their brands, etc. The more time we have to add value as humans in the innovation process, the better.