Exclusive: Inside Yum’s effort to predict what customers will crave next Yum Brands is leveraging AI, data science, and predictive market research to forecast new menu item success across its brands like Taco Bell, KFC, and Pizza Hut. Their Global Innovation Database, fueled by consumer forecasts, helps identify emerging trends and successful concepts. While AI provides logic and patterns, human creativity remains crucial in the final decision-making process for menu development.

• Yum Brands uses AI, data science, and predictive market research to evaluate new menu concepts.
• The Global Innovation Database, developed by Collider Lab, contains over 7,000 evaluated concepts across 35 countries.
• The system uses predictive market research, asking consumers to forecast others’ responses.
• This approach has informed products like Pizza Hut Melts and KFC shakes.
• Taco Bell’s beverage business is a key growth area, with plans to build a $5 billion beverage business by 2030.
• The database has identified broader consumer shifts, including demand for snackable foods, protein, and specialty beverages.
• Yum views the database as a competitive advantage for connecting learnings across brands and markets.
• The company sees AI as a complementary tool to human creativity, not a replacement. Continue reading https://www.axios.com/2026/06/03/taco-bell-kfc-menu-yum-ai-database