PepsiCo uses a tool called Tastewise, which deploys algorithms to uncover what people are eating and why. The AI-driven tool analyzes massive quantities of food data online. AI collects data that consumers don't report in focus groups. Through findings from the tool, PepsiCo incorporated seaweed into a flavored savory snack. It's been a top seller since it was brought to the market.

A new era of consumer research

PepsiCo also leans heavily on Trendscope,&nbsp;which focuses exclusively on social conversations around food on Twitter, Reddit, blogs, review boards, and more.&nbsp; The tool considers context and whether or not the conversation is relevant to the business, it measures not only the volume of specific conversations but how they grow over time. There was a spike in interest around immunity during the pandemic, and PepsiCo used this tool to launch a new line of its propel sports drinks infused with Immunity ingredients.

Data driven social prediction

Once the products are developed, there’s still plenty for AI and machine learning to do. For the launch of Mountain Dew Rise Energy, for example, PepsiCo determined which consumers would be more likely than average to enjoy the drink, and then narrowed it in further to determine a core target.

From idea to shelf near you

After integrating these technologies, it’s easy to become overly reliant on the data, which can’t always speak to people’s actual motivations.&nbsp; A recent Pepsi ad, which focuses on the shared human emotions of the pandemic and doesn’t feature any products.

Keeping humans in the AI loop

I’m always making sure there is both a data-driven and a human empathy perspective brought to commercial decision-making.That is a key role and ongoing challenge for my team

Leaders at PepsiCo detail how they use data, AI, and machine learning for every part of the product journey, from innovation to marketing.

AI & Machine Learning

How PepsiCo uses AI to create products consumers don’t know they want

The Hook Model is a way of explaining somebody's interactions with a product as they go through the four phases: the trigger to begin using the product, an action to satisfy the trigger, a variable reward for the actions, and an investment - in which the user feels that the product is more valuable to them.After the cycle has been completed by the user, their habits will reinforce the product and therefore a win to the company.

The Hook Model

Triggers come in two types: external and internal. Habit-forming technologies begin by alerting us consumers with external triggers like emails, or an app icon.&nbsp;By continuously doing this, we begin to form associations with internal triggers therefore becoming attached to existing behaviors and emotions.

Hook Model Step 1: Trigger

After forming trigger habits, the companies will leverage the two pulleys of human behavior: motivation and ability.In order to increase the offs of a user taking intended action, the behavior designer must make the action as easy as possible while boosting the user's motivation.

Hook Model Step 2: Action

Companies use variable schedules of reward. This powerful tool shows that our brains are surged with dopamine when expecting a reward.By introducing multiple variables in effect, it creates a frenzied hunger state and it activates the parts that are associated with wanting and desire.

Hook Model Step 3: Variable Reward

In this part of the model, the user is asked to do a little bit of work. This is the phase where: 1. the odds where the user will make another pass through the hook model will increase, and 2. the user's brain is swimming in dopamine so the company is now letting up pay for that dopamine.The investment generally varies between giving a combination of time, data, effort, social capital, or even money.&nbsp;However, the investment phase implies that this action that the user is willing to do will improve the service for the next go-around.

Hook Model Step 4: Investment

Whether we like it or not, and whether we've noticed it or not, habit-forming technology is already here and many apps are already using it on us through various devices.&nbsp;With what they acquire from us, this trinity of access, data, and speed further creates new opportunities for habit-forming technologies to hook a user.

Habit-forming Technology

The Hook Model is a theory of building habit-forming products through specific experiences. Through Hooks, products can increase user engagement.

Stashed ideas

The Hook Model: How to Manufacture Desire in 4 Steps

The hybrid format is proving to be more than a passing trend. This shift is because most of the long-term effects of the pandemic are largely unknown, incorporating remote working into the business model is prudent.Moreover, it’s in line with what employees want. Now that workers have had a taste of such a choice, flexibility comes up repeatedly, as one of the most important things for employees. And, as people become more conscious of the social and environmental impact of what we do, companies have a responsibility to cut unnecessary travel.

The hybrid workplace

<ul><li>Emotional intelligence (EQ) is one of those skills that can serve you well if you are not face-to-face with someone: we need to pay extra attention to our tone, explaining context, and develop awareness as to how we are coming across.</li><li>Leadership and social influence. Leadership and the ability to influence others are a result of understanding people.&nbsp;</li><li>Taking initiative from the inside: Companies need teams of people that can think creatively and take the initiative to innovate within their role. “Intrapreneurship” within companies will become a skill that is in demand.</li></ul>

3 must-have soft skills for the hybrid workplace

Soft skills to help you thrive in the hybrid workplace

“We expect more from technology and less from each other.”

Paul Graham, the famed Silicon Valley investor, has observed that societies tend to develop “social antibodies” — defenses against new harmful behaviors. So maybe the remedy to screen indiscretion may be developing new norms that make it socially undesirable to check one’s phone in the company of others.The trouble is that if we don’t build social antibodies, the disease of distraction will become the new normalas. Graham points out, is that “unless the rate at which social antibodies evolve can increase to match the accelerating rate at which technological progress throws off new addictions, we’ll be increasingly unable to rely on customs to protect us.”

Social Antibodies

<ul><li>At work: Take an explicit approach and declare discussions device-free.&nbsp;</li><li>Among friends: To effectively call someone out while keeping things cordial, ask a question: “Oh, sorry, were you on your phone? Is everything O.K.?” If there really is an emergency, the person can excuse himself, but more often than not, he’ll tuck it back into his pocket and start enjoying the night.</li></ul>

How to Handle Other People's Bad Phone Habits

Netflix have changed how customers watch movies and TV shows. This technology has taken a different point of view that changed what customers watch, not just how they watch.
The company collected vast amounts of data on the viewing habits of its subscribers. The collected data creates a rich social system that influences what members watch, based on which shows they&#39;ve liked in the past and what other subscribers see and like.

Technology is in service of strategy

... you should be willing to disrupt yourself.
Netflix reshaped the logic of the entire industry. But the most important thing is how the company transformed itself to fulfil its mission. Initially, it mailed DVDs and then moved to broadcast movies and TV shows digitally. Today, Netflix is ​​better known as a content creator. 
Netflix has incurred external scepticism in every strategic move and required an internal rethinking of what worked before.

If you aim to disrupt an industry

Netflix has invented a range of practices designed to connect the company's goals in the marketplace with how it organizes the workplace. The company has a detailed statement of its principles, policies, and practices. In the manifesto, it states that "You say what you think, when it's in the best interest of Netflix, even if it is uncomfortable. You are willing to be critical of the status quo."

Strategy is culture. Culture is strategy.

The three big strategy lessons from the company’s success.

consumerresearch

A new era of consumer research

How PepsiCo uses AI to create products consumers don’t know they want

The Hook Model

The Hook Model: How to Manufacture Desire in 4 Steps