How AI will drive innovation at The Magnum Ice Cream Company

In the evolving world of ice cream formats, flavors and applications, how can businesses stay ahead of the curve? According to The Magnum Ice Cream Company, AI would be ‘a catalyst for unlocking the next generation of food innovation’. TMICC, which is set to be de-merged from Unilever in mid-November 2025, is already taking this vision forward by partnering with foodtech company NotCo, proprietor of the first AI model built specifically for the CPG industry. NotCo debuted the platform 10 years ago, building it up to feature a dataset of thousands of ingredients from which the technology can pull the perfect ingredient match for a specific application. At first, it was NotCo’s own line of plant-based alternatives that benefitted from the tech’s capabilities – but for a while now, Giuseppe AI, as the platform is known, has been made available to CPG majors globally, such as Kraft Heinz and most recently, The Magnum Ice Cream Company. TMICC chief research, design and innovation officer Zbigniew Lewicki told the press that the partnership with NotCo would help the ice cream firm to ‘solve complex formulation challenges faster and more precisely’. NotCo founder Matias Muchnick gave us a glimpse of what Giuseppe AI can do for ice cream formulations. “Giuseppe AI is the first vertical-specific foundational model for the CPG industry, establishing a new paradigm of domain-specific AI infrastructure,” he opened. “It was designed by engineers and scientists for food scientists, and is built on a proprietary, high-quality dataset of food properties accumulated over a decade. “The evolution is now visible in the platform’s broader application, as it helps some of the world’s largest food and beverage CPG companies overcome their most complex growth and innovation challenges. “The platform is now ready for a new range of applications, ranging from turning a product plant-based to sugar reduction or cocoa replacement – leveraging its AI capabilities to solve a wide variety of complexities. It works to accelerate innovation, eliminating traditional R&D bottlenecks, and accelerating competitive products from concept to consumer, driving growth through rapid innovation cycles, and reducing development time to market.” Giuseppe AI is designed with three layers that power incrementality and innovation, Muchnick added. This includes: “The modular infrastructure, composed of Concept, Discovery, and Elevate, provides AI-guided innovation and product design,” Muchnick added. In 2022, Kraft Heinz and NotCo launched a joint venture with the aim to transform the CPG major’s plant-based alternatives portfolio. By 2023, the JV had launched three innovations: Kraft NotCheese Slices; NotMayo, and Kraft NotMac&Cheese , a range of plant-based cheese slices, alt mayo and a mac & cheese offering, respectively. In 2024, the first plant-based offering from KD followed, along with hot dog and sausage alternatives from Oscar Meyer . In 2025, the JV launched a spicy mayonnaise and a portable cup version of their Kraft NotMac & Cheese. Over the years, NotCo has also signed agreements with Mars Inc. and Mondelez International Inc., with TMICC being its latest partner. The foodtech firm is yet to turn a profit, Bloomberg reported earlier this year, though money isn’t an issue for the company which has raised $466m and is backed by the likes of Jeff Bezos. In 2025, NotCo closed its New York office to cut costs and gave its US operation to Kraft Heinz Co., which now sells its products in the US and Canada. The foodtech company is now focusing on making its South American operations profitable by 2027 and its unique AI offering is considered a major pillar in this strategy. Turning back to its TMICC partnership, NotCo founder Muchnick told us that AI helps solve growth barriers by adding speed and precision to formulations. “This partnership demonstrates how we are now helping the world’s largest ice cream company overcome their most complex growth and innovation challenges,” he told us. Key formulation challenges in ice cream involve balancing indulgence with priorities like calorie efficiency, plant-based innovation, and navigating rising commodity costs, he added. “For the food and beverage industry at large, AI helps navigate tighter regulations by driving reformulation, such as colorants and nutrition requirements, and addresses supply volatility from climate and commodity shocks affecting key ingredients,” the NotCo founder said. “This allows companies to unlock smarter ways to innovate without compromising the quality and experience people expect, and even expand beyond the traditional boundaries of ice cream.” “AI helps by providing AI-guided product design,” he summarized. “Our tools, like Elevate, help reduce trial and error by up to 10 times. For example, Giuseppe AI assists with navigating exigent sugar reductions without compromising the consumer experience, or finding alternatives to key ingredients due to supply volatility.” Overall, NotCo’s AI platform narrows the divide between concept and execution by offering companies tools to experiment and refine formulations, all while keping business-critical constraints in check. The result is a more agile and informed new product development approach that focuses on the opportunities and minimizes risk.