Magnum Turns to NotCo’s AI to Reimagine the Future of Ice Cream

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As the Magnum Ice Cream Company prepares to go public this November, it’s also serving up a bold new flavor of innovation, this time powered by artificial intelligence. The beloved ice cream brand, home to household names like Ben & Jerry’s, Cornetto, and Wall’s, has announced a strategic partnership with Chilean food-tech pioneer NotCo to harness its proprietary AI platform in reformulating existing products and creating entirely new ones.

For Magnum, this collaboration isn’t just about novelty; it’s about navigating a rapidly shifting food landscape. “Consumers want to indulge but are also looking for smaller portions and more sustainable products,” said Zbigniew Lewicki, Chief Research, Design and Innovation Officer at the Magnum Ice Cream Company. “AI helps us look at calories, rethink ingredients, and manage the rising costs of key commodities.”

Behind the scenes, NotCo’s technology, affectionately known as Giuseppe, is quietly reshaping how global food giants approach product development. Using machine learning models trained on vast datasets of molecular structures and sensory data, Giuseppe can predict how plant-based ingredients will behave, taste, and interact. This allows companies to replicate or even improve upon traditional recipes without compromising flavor or texture.

Founded in Santiago in 2015, NotCo has become one of Latin America’s most celebrated food-tech success stories. Backed by more than $400 million in funding from investors including Jeff Bezos’ Bezos Expeditions, Tiger Global, and Kaszek Ventures, the company’s mission is to reinvent food using AI. Its platform has already powered collaborations with Kraft Heinz on plant-based mayo, cheese singles, and mac & cheese, as well as with Starbucks on vegan beverages across Latin America. Now, with Magnum, it is entering the indulgent world of ice cream, a category long overdue for reinvention.

According to NotCo CEO Matias Muchnick, Magnum joins a growing roster of more than a dozen major consumer goods companies now using the company’s AI engine. “We’re helping them respond faster to changing consumer tastes, reduce sugar, replace synthetic dyes, and even discover the next viral flavor,” Muchnick said. “The industry is evolving; this is about agility and creativity at scale.”

Muchnick points to a larger trend emerging from what he calls the “Make America Healthy Again” movement, an era defined by shifting values, surging inflation in ingredients like cocoa, and a growing appetite for foods that balance pleasure with purpose. NotCo’s technology is already fueling reformulations that allow brands to innovate faster and with fewer trial-and-error cycles, helping them stay relevant in an increasingly competitive market.

For Magnum, the move comes at a strategic time. Its parent company, Unilever, is spinning off its €15 billion ice cream division into the newly formed Magnum Ice Cream Company, with the public listing expected in November. The split aims to sharpen focus and improve profitability across Unilever’s portfolio, giving the new entity greater flexibility to adapt to consumer demands and economic pressures. In that context, the partnership with NotCo isn’t just an R&D experiment; it’s a signal of how Magnum plans to modernize indulgence while optimizing operations.

The collaboration underscores how artificial intelligence is becoming an integral ingredient in the recipe for the future of food. For NotCo, it’s another milestone in proving that AI can meaningfully transform how products are imagined and scaled. For Magnum, it’s a declaration that even the most iconic pleasures can evolve without losing their soul. As the company approaches its public listing, one thing is clear: the next generation of ice cream won’t just be crafted by hand; it will be co-created by intelligence.