Laboro.AI Supports Development of Commercial Version of Ajinomoto's 'AI Menu Planner'

## Laboro.AI Supports Development of Commercial Version of Ajinomoto's 'AI Menu Planner'

Laboro.AI, a company specialized in custom AI development, announced its development support for the commercial version of the 'AI Menu Planner' launched by Ajinomoto Co., Inc., utilizing its proprietary 'Menu Creation Engine.'

### Background and Development Support

The food service industry is currently facing chronic labor shortages, making the manually-intensive menu creation tasks performed by dietitians a critical operational challenge.

Against this backdrop, Ajinomoto had been conducting trials of the 'AI Menu Planner,' which features automated menu generation based on criteria set by dietitians, aimed at simplifying and improving efficiency through digital technology. Verifications conducted with dietitians and nutritionists working in food service facilities confirmed the benefits of the tool in reducing the burden of tasks such as nutrient and cost normalization, as well as dish selection and adjustments to improve menu quality.

The 'AI Menu Planner' is equipped with the 'Menu Creation Engine,' which Laboro.AI developed and announced in 2024. This engine allows users to specify conditions such as nutrients and preferred ingredients to generate compliant menus. For the development of the commercial version, Laboro.AI implemented modifications to the engine, including the ability to register third-party recipes, allowing food service companies to utilize the system according to the realities of their specific facilities. This has enabled the engine to expand from Ajinomoto's consumer-facing (BtoC) web services to smooth implementation and deployment in B2B services, which require more complex operational workflows.

### Features of the Commercial Version

The 'AI Menu Planner' is characterized by its 'AI Automatic Menu Generation' feature, which creates menus meeting facility-specific rules for one to three meals a day, for up to several months. By combining an intuitive GUI with the algorithmic technology of the 'Menu Creation Engine,' it offers both flexible customization and high convenience. As a result, the 'AI Menu Planner' serves as a versatile service software that supports food service management and menu creation, enabling staff to reduce the burden of building menus from scratch and freeing up time for other tasks.

### Future Outlook

Laboro.AI is committed to its 'Value-Up AI' theme, focusing on AI development that drives growth for client companies. The development of this engine for the commercial version of the 'AI Menu Planner' is a project that directly supports solving the social issue of labor shortages in the food service industry by digitizing previously human-dependent, high-load tasks. The company will continue to deepen its collaboration with Ajinomoto, striving to realize further value-up in the food sector through industrial AI implementation.