The modern beverage industry has long operated on a model of educated guesswork, where companies invest heavily in creating new products and then use extensive marketing data to convince consumers to buy them. A South Australian company, however, is pioneering a revolutionary shift in this paradigm by completely reversing the process. SYNC, a new entrant in the competitive seltzer market, has introduced a world-first line of sugar-free alcoholic seltzers developed not by a team of flavorists in a lab but by a sophisticated artificial intelligence algorithm that directly incorporates customer preferences. This innovative approach seeks to eliminate the risk of market failure by creating beverages that people have already indicated they want to drink. The venture is the brainchild of co-founder and CEO Denham D’Silva, whose passions for machine learning and brewing culminated in a system designed to blend advanced flavor science with real-time consumer feedback, effectively making the customer a co-creator in the product development journey.
Fusing Technology with Consumer Taste
At the heart of SYNC’s groundbreaking method is a powerful collaboration with experts from the Australian Institute of Machine Learning (AIML). Together, they developed the proprietary AI that drives the flavor creation process. The company’s core mission is to invert the traditional consumer dynamic; instead of creating a product and then finding an audience for it, SYNC utilizes customer input from the very beginning to engineer precisely what the market desires. This customer-centric model is further distinguished by its strong emphasis on data privacy, a crucial element in building trust. Consumers are given complete control over the information they choose to provide, ensuring that their participation is voluntary and transparent. The synergy between the co-founders, Denham D’Silva and publican Trent Fahey, who brings a background in computer systems and engineering, provides a robust foundation for this technologically advanced business. This strategy not only empowers consumers but also offers a more efficient and sustainable business model by significantly reducing the uncertainty associated with new product launches.
The Interactive AI Bar Experience
To tangibly demonstrate its technological prowess, SYNC introduced an “AI bar” at its launch events, offering a hands-on look at the future of personalized beverages. This interactive station allowed attendees to answer a brief questionnaire about their taste preferences, after which the AI system processed their responses and generated a unique, personalized seltzer flavor for them on the spot. This immediate and engaging experience served as a powerful proof of concept, illustrating the system’s capability for rapid, customized creation. This real-time demonstration complemented the company’s broader strategy of using aggregated customer feedback, collected online and through QR codes on its products, to determine which flavors would be selected for future commercial releases. The initial product offering that resulted from this process was a mixed 10-pack of seltzers, featuring an inaugural lineup of sour lime, orange, raspberry, mango, and cola flavors. This launch marked a significant step forward in the application of AI to the consumer goods sector.
