Saw a small bakery using an AI oven in Portland last week

I was grabbing a pastry at a shop on Hawthorne and noticed they had this smart oven that adjusts time and temp based on a photo of the dough. The baker said it cut their waste by about 15% in the first month. Has anyone else run into these AI appliances in small businesses yet?

2 comments

2 Comments

jake_dixon13d ago

@fiona737 hit on something important about the humidity thing. I used to work in a cafe that had one of these smart ovens, and the weather sensor was honestly the biggest game changer for us. On a rainy day, our pastries would come out with that perfect flaky crunch instead of turning soggy halfway through service. We also used it for proofing bread overnight, the oven would adjust the temperature based on how the dough looked on a camera feed every hour. Cut our late night shifts way down since we weren't babysitting the proofing box. That 15% waste figure matches what we saw too, mostly from not overbaking batches when the humidity was high.

fiona73713d ago

Oh man, I actually saw a thing about this on a food tech podcast last week. They said these AI ovens can learn each baker's preferences over time, like if you like your croissants darker or softer. Apparently the sensors measure humidity too, not just dough color. Makes sense for Portland weather where it's always damp. The 15% waste cut sounds about right based on what they mentioned. Pretty wild how even a tiny bakery can afford this stuff now, used to be only big factories.