IA soon to wear to many (baking) hats

To accomplish their complex mission of production and sales, bakers can now count on a reinforcement with a virtual appearance... but with concrete effects. Artificial intelligence (AI) is accelerating the digitalization of activities in bakeries and shops, by increasing the efficiency of companies. Recipes, cooking, consumer trends, sales predictions... Nothing escapes AI.

Contrary to popular beliefs about the bakery and pastry chef's professions, the strength of the hands and body alone is not enough to make breads, pastries, cakes and other sweet treats. This statement is all the more true in a context where professionals are forced to carefully monitor their selling prices, the cost of their raw materials and, consequently, their margins. The modern craftsman is on all fronts, faced with the diversity of tasks to be handled. While it was already accompanied by digital tools to manage cash receipts, schedules or customer/supplier orders, the company manager now has the AI option to gain in efficiency. This irruption takes shape in key equipment of a bakery. At the Italian oven manufacturer Unox, the OPTIC. Cooking automatically recognises the ingredients inserted into the cooking chamber and activates the appropriate programme. A device that reduces the risk of error and avoids unnecessary manipulation. The kneading machine is also concerned, thanks to the initiative of the Calvet mill. Called iiXGO, the equipment developed by the company's teams automates the dough kneading process and analyzes the texture and elasticity of the dough in real time, which ensures consistent quality.

Producing better to gain efficiency and responsibility

While these intelligent machines are still marginal behind the scenes in bakeries, it is on the management side that the transformations are most visible. Solutions such as Inpulse or Helean make it possible to forecast sales with great reliability, taking into account activity histories, calendar holidays, local events or the weather. "If a baker produces too much, he is forced to throw away products. Conversely, in the case of insufficient quantities, lost sales are just as damaging to the company. This makes it essential to accurately forecast needs," says Paul Barbotin, co-founder of the French start-up Helean. The company claims to support big names in the sector, such as Ange or Sophie Lebreuilly, with substantial gains in terms of margin but also ease of management, thanks to the management of stocks and supplier orders integrated into the tool. "We talk a lot about AI, but our primary objective is that it is not visible to the user. For the solution to be adopted, it must be easy to use," continues the new technology specialist. While these tools are beginning to be adopted on a massive scale by structured networks, freelancers are struggling to get on board this silent revolution. This reality has been taken into account by the publisher of payment collection solutions Toporder by myPOS, which has integrated similar functionalities into the checkouts deployed by hundreds of craftsmen. The integrated nature of the ecosystem increases its ease of use and limits costs for entrepreneurs.

Relying on AI to innovate and surprise customers

Simplicity is arguably not the only topic related to the accessibility of technology and the opportunities it offers. For a long time, effective monitoring of consumer trends or creating elaborate visuals, which could be placed at the center of communication campaigns or at the center of refined creations, was reserved for large companies. "The arrival of artificial intelligence tools has allowed me to imagine creations that were previously reserved for palaces, even though I am a local baker! Matthieu Bijou smiles. Based in Saint-Maurice (Val-de-Marne) since 2023, the company manager has multiplied innovations. "I use AI for competitions, to create my new snack cards, or to create my own packaging. It's a real pride to be able to create by myself, while modernizing and evolving my work" On a daily basis, Maison Bijou's communication is worked on with generative AI, as are the festive creations. For Christmas 2025, the company's signature log - inspired by his wife's Peruvian origins - saw its visual and box completed in a few hours, allowing the creation of a custom-made mold. The idea can be applied to many other references, such as pastries... and could give rise to new possibilities for customization. Thanks to AI, the customer is able to generate the visual of the cake of his dreams in a few clicks - the only limit being his mastery of the "prompt", which has become central to passing the right instructions to the tools. A craftsman equipped with equipment such as a food 3D printer (like Patiss3, the machine developed by the French company La Pâtisserie Numérique), or tools for making molds, would then be able to bring the visual developed to life. As for bread, the possibilities seem more limited, due to the lower importance of the visual aspect and the constraints inherent in shaping the dough. The most inventive will be able to bet on recipes worked by AI on the basis of new consumer trends: ube, matcha, Dubai-style chocolate... so many products in sight whose encounter with the bakery would not fail to surprise. In this permanent turmoil and this quest for renewal, craft intelligence will still have a lot of work to do to separate the wheat from the chaff.