For nearly two years Coca-Cola has been experimenting with limited editions of drinks with mysterious flavours – most of them had vague, futuristic concepts. The latest, Coca-Cola Y3000, is meant to taste like the future. The company used artificial intelligence to compose the flavour and the packaging.
A new Coca-Cola flavour created by AI
A new flavour created by AI
The company based its work on insights from its consumers, checking which flavours people associate with the future. It then used AI to determine flavour pairings and profiles. As for the product's packaging – which seems to reference Y2K aesthetics with showy bubbles, pink and blue colouring and a pixelated logo – Coca-Cola used images generated by AI. Y3000, which in the United States and Canada is available in both sugar-free and full-sugar versions, will be sold for a limited time and its price will not differ from the standard one.
Our ambition at Coca-Cola Creations is to create magical and unexpected moments for our consumers. Inspired by the timelessness of the Coca-Cola brand, we want to celebrate each person's idea of what our future might look like. – says Oana Vlad
In the UK, Coca-Cola Zero Sugar 3000 will be available in selected stores. It can be bought in 250 ml cans from September.
Coca-Cola experiments
Coca-Cola experiments
Under the Creations platform, Coca-Cola has created a series of limited-edition flavours. Most recently the company launched the Ultimate flavour on the market, aimed at gamers and created in collaboration with Riot Games, the publisher of the online game League of Legends. Before Ultimate came Starlight, inspired by space, as well as Dreamworld, which according to the company tastes like dreams. Coca-Cola also teamed up with musicians Rosalía and Marshmello on limited-edition flavours. With the exception of the Marshmello drink (which tastes not of marshmallows but of strawberries and watermelon), Coca-Cola did not reveal what these products were supposed to taste like.
Concepts from the article
AI — Artificial Intelligence. A set of methods and systems performing tasks that usually require human reasoning, learning, perception or content generation. In HEXX AI CMS it covers language models, document analysis and automations.
How Coca-Cola uses AI in the Y3000 flavour
Why it matters: It takes over repetitive tasks — transcriptions, descriptions, translations, selection — and shortens the path from idea to publication. In an editorial office it means more time for work that a machine cannot do: judgement, contacts, decisions.
When it is used: For generating and editing content, document analysis, transcription, translation and automating the flow of materials.
What skipping it risks: Without AI, a team performs bulk work manually (photo descriptions, language versions, summaries), while competitors publish faster and more cheaply.
Summary
The limited edition Coca-Cola Y3000 is the company's first drink whose flavour and packaging were created with the involvement of AI. The company used consumer insights and images generated by artificial intelligence, and the product costs the same as standard drinks.
As part of Coca-Cola Creations, the company regularly experiments with unusual flavours – from the cosmic Starlight to Ultimate created with Riot Games for League of Legends players. In the UK, Y3000 will arrive in selected stores in September.
