- This event has passed.
Digital Transformation: Reimagining Food Product Development with AI
Digital Transformation
Reimagining Food Product Development with AI
Join us in NYC for an exciting NYIFT event exploring AI in the food industry, with a special focus on product development and innovation. Hosted at the Microsoft NYC Times Square office, this session will feature expert speakers with diverse perspectives sharing how AI is transforming the way we create and improve food products.
We are excited to have speakers from Microsoft, Mondelez, Ingredion and Innov8 NXT.
After the talks, continue the conversation and networking at a rooftop mixer (weather permitting, otherwise indoors) across the street at The Beer Authority, where you’ll enjoy city views, appetizers, and a cash bar. Don’t miss this opportunity to connect with industry leaders and discover the future of food innovation.
Speakers
Joe Manton
Senior Director & Global Lead: Digital R&D
Mondelēz International
Bio
Joe is a global leader in digital transformation with 25 years of experience in the FMCG industry, specializing in the strategic application of AI and advanced technologies to accelerate innovation. At Procter & Gamble, he led digital initiatives across Feminine Care, Baby, Personal Power, and Beauty, embedding data-driven approaches into product development. At Mondelez International, Joe spearheaded the digital overhaul of R&D, integrating AI, physics-based simulation, and the Industrial Metaverse to dramatically reduce cycle times, improve success rates, and cut costs.
Joe’s work bridges scientific rigor with scalable digital solutions—delivering faster, smarter, and more sustainable outcomes in food innovation. He is passionate about transforming technical organizations by embedding data governance, cloud platforms, and AI at their core. With deep international experience and a track record of building high-performing teams and external partnerships, Joe brings a visionary yet pragmatic lens to the future of food product development. He will present how Mondelez is applying AI and Machine Learning for R&D product development.
Vinay Indraganti
Founder & CEO
Innov8 NXT
Bio
Vinay is the Founder and CEO of innov8 NXT, where they drive Vision AI driven defect detection and AI-powered defect resolution, closing the defect loop and accelerating product quality and operational efficiency.
Mr. Indraganti has, over the course of his 24-year technology career, held multiple roles, from Chief Technology Officer to Global Practice Head and Solution Architect. He has co-founded three startups in the past with successful exits. Prior to founding Innov8 NXT, Mr. Indraganti led the global Digital Organization at Ingredion Inc., a Fortune-500 food ingredient multinational corporation as their Global Vice President of Digital Transformation and Strategy focusing on R&D and Manufacturing transformation.
At Innov8 NXT, he focuses his knowledge and expertise to improve food production yield at all stages of the food lifecycle, from food formulation, food manufacturing, food logistics and sustainable food production. At Innov8 NXT, he is responsible for go-to-market and product development for these cutting-edge, AI-powered products and solutions for the Food & Beverage industry.
Balamurugan Balakreshnan
Senior Director/Principal Cloud Solution Architect
Microsoft
Bio
Bala is a Digital Transformation & AI Leader | Professional Services. He is the host for Microsoft and this NYIFT event on AI.
He helps Professional Services organizations accelerate growth and innovation through AI, Generative AI/Agentic solutions, and cloud-based platforms. I’ve led hundreds of AI initiatives, guiding clients from strategy to scaled adoption with measurable business impact.
His key areas of expertise include:
- AI & Generative AI, Agentic AI and Finetuning – Leveraging Generative AI, LLM fine-tuning, to create creative new production ready applications for industry enterprise use cases.
- Cloud & Technology Strategy – Scalable, secure solutions across Microsoft, open-source, and multi-cloud platforms.
- Solution Architecture & Integration – Aligning business, data, and technology for sustainable transformation.
- Thought Leadership – Author of Azure Machine Learning Engineering and Azure Open AI Cookbook, sharing frameworks for enterprise AI success.
Bala specializes in turning complex AI and cloud initiatives into actionable business outcomes, empowering organizations to innovate faster, optimize operations, and gain lasting competitive advantage.
Xin Yang, Ph.D.
Predictive Food Formulation Lead
Ingredion Inc.
Bio
Xin Yang is a business scientist and leads predictive food formulation at Ingredion Inc. She holds a Ph.D. in Food Science, a Master’s degree in Computer Science, and brings over 15 years of experience in food ingredient innovation. She bridges food science, material science, and data science to accelerate product development and drive innovations in food industry.
Xin’s key expertise:
- AI & Data Science in Food Innovation
- Ingredient Functionality & Material Science
- Food Formulation & Product Development
- Scientific Contributions (author of book chapters, peer reviewed paper, and patents, speaker at international conferences and forums)
Sibi Shanmugaraj
Data Science Technical Lead: Digital R&D
Mondelēz International
Bio
Sibi is a senior technical leader focused on data science, machine learning and artificial intelligence. With over 10 years of experience in this area, he is involved in building data-driven solutions and drive innovation within Mondelez R&D. He helps facilitate the implementation of Mondelez’s AI strategy and drive adoption of AI based solutions. In his current role, he spearheads the development of various internal tools and capabilities covering a wide array of areas such as product and process development, ingredients research, agronomy, analytical sciences, first-principles surrogate modeling etc.
Prior to joining Mondelez he was working in the digital media and advertising space.
Location
Walk-In Attendance is NOT permitted due to Microsoft security requirements.
Cancelations received after Monday, November 3 are not able to be refunded.
Schedule
Monday, November 17, 2025 @ 3:00 pm – 6:30 pm EST
| 3:00 – 5:00 PM | Microsoft Offices > |
| 5:00 – 6:30 PM | Beer Authority > |
Menu
Appetizers & Cash Bar
Fees
| Members | $40 |
| Nonmembers | $45 |
| Students, Unemployed, Retirees, Executive Board | $30* |