Why Do we Spend Millions Digitising Systems , yet Pennies Digitising People.

We keep saying the future of food will be powered by AI, automation and data. But let’s be honest, no algorithm will rescue us from the crises we refuse to face. The food industry’s real fault line isn’t technological. It’s human.

Across supermarkets, production plants and retail operations, we’re sitting on an uncomfortable truth: the sector is transforming faster than its people are being equipped to cope. Sustainability, digitisation, compliance, AI, these aren’t just new functions. They’re rewiring what it means to work in food. Yet too many of our teams are still being trained for a world that no longer exists.

We worship efficiency. Fewer people, faster systems, slimmer margins. But in chasing short-term gains, we’ve stripped resilience out of the system. Now every flood, drought or supply chain shock exposes how fragile we’ve become.

AI can optimise transport routes or predict stock levels, yes. But it can’t teach a procurement manager why a resilient supply chain might mean partnering differently, not just buying cheaper. It can’t teach a factory operator how climate risk affects crop quality, or a marketing team why “sustainably sourced” needs to mean something measurable. Those are human insights, built on understanding and judgement. And that’s what skilling and upskilling are for.

We’ve spent millions digitising systems , yet pennies digitising people.
You can’t plug AI into a workforce that doesn’t understand how to use it. Most food businesses now rely on increasingly complex systems, from predictive analytics to traceability dashboards, yet frontline and middle managers are often left trying to make sense of it all with training that’s outdated or perfunctory.

What we call “digital transformation” is often little more than a software rollout. True transformation happens when everyone, from the warehouse to the boardroom, understands the why behind the tools, how data links to decision-making, how automation frees time for judgement, how sustainability becomes part of performance, not an afterthought. Without that shared understanding, technology becomes theatre.

Every role in a food company, from buyer to merchandiser to accountant, now touches sustainability in some way. But most people don’t know how to speak that language fluently. They know it’s important but not how it connects to their KPIs, their choices or their teams.

That gap is dangerous. It’s how “greenwashing” happens, not out of malice, but out of ignorance. Upskilling teams in sustainability literacy means giving them the confidence to make responsible decisions at speed. Imagine if every person in your business could explain carbon intensity, waste hierarchy, biodiversity impact or ethical sourcing, not as slogans, but as part of their daily work. That’s what the next generation of leaders will need.

There’s a brutal truth here: automation isn’t eliminating people, it’s eliminating irrelevance. The jobs that vanish are the ones that don’t evolve. The real winners in this transformation will be those who understand how to work with AI, not against it, using it to interpret data, improve quality, and drive purpose.

Imagine a store manager who can use predictive analytics to manage waste. A sustainability officer who can automate carbon reporting. A buyer who can trace every supplier down to the farm gate with a click. These are not futuristic scenarios. They’re the skills gap standing between today’s food companies and tomorrow’s success.

It’s astonishing to me that we’ll spend millions on new tech stacks and sustainability consultants, yet training budgets remain an afterthought. Traditional learning models, long courses, classroom sessions, dull e-modules, simply don’t fit how people actually work.

Microlearning, adaptive content and AI-driven skill mapping can change that. Imagine a learning system that doesn’t just deliver training, but diagnoses what each team member needs next, embedding knowledge into everyday work, not forcing it into quarterly compliance exercises.

Upskilling isn’t a cost. It’s infrastructure. The smartest food companies will treat it the same way they treat logistics or product development, essential, measurable, and always on.

Our industry has no shortage of innovation. What it lacks is fluency, the ability to connect the dots between sustainability, profitability and human potential. The next revolution in food won’t come from a new technology or ESG report. It will come from teaching people how to think systemically, act ethically and collaborate across silos.

Because AI can model probabilities, but only people can make meaning, and that is what keeps an industry alive.