Trace One Unleashes AI Copilot to Supercharge Food R&D and Compliance

NEW YORK, NY – June 04, 2026 – For decades, the engine room of the food and beverage industry has run on a frustrating combination of human expertise and painstaking manual labor. Product formulators, food scientists, and regulatory specialists—some of the brightest minds in the business—have spent countless hours sifting through databases, re-keying supplier data sheets, and manually cross-checking ingredient compliance, a slow-moving process that stifles the very innovation it's meant to support.

Today, that paradigm is facing its most significant disruption yet. Trace One, a global stalwart in product lifecycle management (PLM), has announced a major expansion of its AI-powered Trace One Copilot, embedding a new layer of intelligence directly into its Devex PLM platform for the food and beverage sector. First launched in 2025, this enhanced suite of tools isn't just another chatbot; it’s a purpose-built assistant designed to automate the industry's most tedious work, promising to transform product development cycles from weeks of uncertainty into hours of focused creation.

From Manual Grind to Intelligent Guidance

The core of the announcement is a direct assault on the operational bottlenecks that plague R&D departments. Trace One has rolled out a trio of AI-driven assistants, each targeting a critical, time-consuming stage of the product lifecycle.

“Our food and beverage customers didn’t ask for another chatbot,” explained Federico Fontanella, Head of Strategic Innovation and Product Partners at Trace One. “They asked us to remove the work that keeps their best scientists, formulators, and regulatory experts stuck in manual searches, repetitive checks, and data re-entry. Trace One Copilot gives that time and focus back.”

For R&D formulators, the new Intelligent Formulation capability acts as a creative partner. Instead of manually searching for ingredients that meet a complex set of criteria, a developer can now describe their goal in natural language—for instance, a low-cost, high-protein beverage for the European market with specific allergen restrictions. The AI then scours the company’s internal PLM database to recommend viable ingredients, formulas, and even packaging options. When a supply chain disruption or cost increase forces a substitution, the system can model alternatives, instantly calculating the cost and compliance impact across all target markets.

Simultaneously, the Supply Chain Assistant tackles the error-prone process of supplier onboarding. It automates the extraction of critical data from technical documents like certificates of analysis and specifications, mapping it directly to the correct fields within the PLM. This eliminates the manual re-keying that introduces costly errors and delays. The assistant goes further, verifying pack copy, comparing artwork, and even checking translations, ensuring that what's on the supplier sheet matches the final product.

A Compliance Lifeline in a Regulatory Maze

Perhaps the most impactful innovation is the Regulatory Affairs Assistant. Navigating the labyrinth of global food law is a high-stakes challenge where a single misstep can lead to recalls, fines, and reputational damage. The assistant allows regulatory managers to ask complex questions in plain language, such as, “Permitted sorbate levels in beverages, EU vs. India?” and receive answers in seconds.

Crucially, these are not the often-unreliable guesses of a generic large language model. Trace One’s AI is exclusively trained on its proprietary regulatory intelligence database—a massive repository curated over 30 years by more than 25 specialists. This dataset covers regulations in over 85 countries, 400+ guidelines, and 2 million ingredient restrictions. Every answer provided by the Copilot is sourced, referencing the specific underlying legislation, giving legal and compliance teams the confidence and traceability they require.

This stands in stark contrast to the risks of using general-purpose AIs for such a specialized task. By providing a closed-loop, validated information system, Trace One is offering a powerful tool for risk mitigation, turning regulatory complexity from a barrier into a potential competitive advantage for companies looking to expand globally.

Redefining the Competitive Landscape

While AI is becoming a common buzzword in enterprise software, Trace One's strategy appears deeply rooted in its industry-specific expertise. The new Copilot capabilities are not a standalone bolt-on but are woven into the fabric of the Trace One Devex PLM platform—a system that became a cornerstone of its portfolio following the 2022 merger with Selerant. This deep integration creates a single source of truth where product ideation, formulation, supplier data, and compliance are all managed within one intelligent ecosystem.

The company is also leveraging powerful partnerships, utilizing Google Vertex AI and Microsoft Azure OpenAI to power its platform, ensuring it remains at the forefront of AI infrastructure and security. This approach allows Trace One to focus on what it does best: applying that AI power to its unique, curated data.

Competitors like Infor and Siemens are also integrating AI into their PLM offerings for process manufacturing. However, Trace One is carving out a defensible niche with its intense focus on the regulatory dimension. In an industry where compliance is non-negotiable, having an AI that is fluent in global food law is a profound differentiator. This transforms the PLM from a simple system of record into a strategic decision-making engine.

The Dawn of a New Era for Food Innovation

The implications of this technological shift extend far beyond mere efficiency gains. By automating the mundane, Trace One is fundamentally changing the role of the food scientist and product developer. Freed from the drudgery of data verification and legislative research, these experts can now dedicate their time to higher-value activities: strategic innovation, anticipating consumer trends, and perfecting the sensory profiles of new products.

“Before Trace One Copilot, reformulating a product for a new market could mean days of searching for the right ingredients, reviewing supplier information, and checking whether every requirement had been covered,” Fontanella added. “What weighs on teams is not only the time, but the uncertainty. Now they can ask a question in plain language, identify suitable alternatives faster, and get sourced answers with much greater confidence.”

This newfound agility could enable brands to respond to market demands—whether for plant-based alternatives, sustainable sourcing, or personalized nutrition—at a speed previously unimaginable. The ability to simulate the launch of a new product across multiple global markets in a matter of hours, with full cost and compliance visibility, represents a seismic shift in the competitive dynamics of the food and beverage industry. It marks a pivotal moment where artificial intelligence is no longer just a concept but a practical, powerful copilot for shaping the future of food.