What to think about AI?
There’s a big new kid on the block, well it has actually been around for years, that is machine learning, but it is going through the gears, backed up by trillions of dollars of cumulative current investment, especially so in the USA and China. Key players creating the current and next generations of AI are, however, now expressing concerns about where it may go and the social and labour market impacts, noting the quite frightening speed of development; it is not fanciful to say that the AI capability of February 2026 will probably be eclipsed by midsummers’ day this year.
So, what does AI mean for the UK food sector? Well, as a starting point it depends in part of the food system one is engaged, so farming through to foodservice and all in-between, but it is also probably fair to assert that unlike the legal profession or, dare I say it, the Civil Service, the food system has the basis to be a little less radically gauged out than elements of professional and bureaucratic services, where the impact of AI is in its infancy and it will, most probably be seismic.
When we think of human capital, for the leadership of food firms it is still likely to be some time before AI is taking responsibility for big decisions of capital allocation, assortment, or purpose, which has all sorts of implications for legal and insurance matters in time too. Hence, senior management and Boards will continue to have corporate oversight for the foreseeable future. Within firms though tasks undertaken by humans are likely to continue to be replaced by a broad spectrum of automation, which embraces not just AI but also digitisation and robotics. Indeed, in this respect, a big and approaching question for the logistics segment of the food system, for example, will be what happens if and when driverless vehicles come into play? Who takes this decision, why, when, and what are its implications?
For skills, AI is truly thought-provoking. What are the skills for future food systems is a core question here, but if it is taken as read that AI will reduce the need for white collar workers, just as the computer rid companies of typing pools, what will these displaced people do, and what skills should they and the next generation invest in are huge? That is a matter of potential revolution for the traditional education system too, more so higher level than nursery. Indeed, it could be argued that the next generation of Civil Service leader needs a background in AI, engineering, science, and technology in order to proficiently undertake their job over PPE at Oxford.
AI is travelling faster than the governance system around it, which also means that regulators need an understanding of the technology, its limitations, its dangers, within a structure of enabling legislation that can cope with the unforeseen challenges of the amalgam of social media amongst other things too. Indeed, from a human capital perspective, it is important to remember that AI is a conversation not an event and so two sets of identical data can lead to different commercial outcomes from the questions and ongoing discourse.
Hence, it begs the question of what human capability does my firm have to have to ask the optimal questions of AI and so generate the corresponding conversation and commercial output? And when a firm has superior data, think maybe Tesco with its proprietary Clubcard pool, and market-leading inquisition and data analytics, then is it a structural commercial advantage created over the competitor set that does not have this data? And what of the person asking the questions, just whose conversation is it?
What to think of AI? Ugh, wow! It is here, so it needs to be embraced, understood, and controlled at every level, from the individual, the family, through to the firm and the State. Indeed, the State has an immense responsibility and opportunity to condition, nay determine, the beneficial or otherwise, traits of AI, where it may not be a case of time will tell, as opposed to moving in a timely fashion.
For firms, all firms, AI also poses opportunities, especially where white collar labour has been repriced upwards in recent years, but again questions of capability, ethics – am I going to sack lots of people – and competitive challenges too. Some may say that this is just the evolution of life, of markets within that, which started with the identification of fire and invention of the wheel. But what makes AI different is its pace and where it may end up.
Dr Clive Black
Senior Advisor, Coriolis Consulting
February 2026
