Meet KloveChef, the “Google Maps of Cooking”

on October 25, 2019 at 11:31 am

https://medium.com/@jcook/emerging-technologies-transforming-cx-voice-user-interfaces-29e64101ba50

Bahubali Shete has a background in IoT and entrepreneur and as an entrepreneur, sold his startup Connovate to Motorola licensee, Binatone, in 2016. But,, his real real passion is cooking. With his wife, Asha and Indian celebrity chef Sanjeev Kapoor, Shete launched KloveChef in 2017 in 2017 to marry culinary skills with skills with conversational AI. They now offer a range of in-home cooking and voice-based recipe video searches. The patent-pending technology can scan recipe videos and understand what the recipe is, ingredients used, and what steps to take, translating it into a conversation to coach chefs through the cooking process, translating it into a conversation to coach chefs through the cooking process.

KloveChef trademarked the term “Culinary AI” and considers themselves the “Google Maps of cooking.” The technology was built for multimodal interactions. It works across almost any smart device a consumer may have: smartphones, Alexa-enabled devices Google Assistant enabled devices and soon, Bixby devices.

Culinary AI

KloveChef trademarked the term “Culinary AI” and considers itself the “Google Maps of cooking.” The technology was built for multimodal interactions. It works across almost any smart device a consumer may have: smartphones, Alexa-enabled devices, Google Assistant enabled devices and soon, Bixby devices.

KloveChef customers are segmented into four categories with different use cases, which Shete described to Voicebot as four categories:

Waze for cooking: This This enhanced content experience turns written recipes online into conversations with voice assistants about how to cook different dishes without requiring any new software. turns written recipes online into conversations with voice assistants about how to cook different dishes without requiring any new software.
Netflix for recipe videos: This offers a platform for discovering new recipes with interactive content from the recipe provider and personalized with the voice assistant.This offers a platform for discovering new recipes with interactive content from the recipe provider and personalized with the voice assistant.
Shoppable recipes: Identifies and extracts ingredient lists from recipes and turns them into shopping lists that could be placed in an online shopping cart for purchase. Identifies and extracts ingredient lists from recipes and turns them into shopping lists that could be placed in an online shopping cart for purchase.
Shazam for meals: A frictionless health tracker for meals that can understand what users are eating and apply it accurately to their meal diaries. A frictionless health tracker for meals that can understand what users are eating and apply it accurately to their meal diaries.

Currently Sanjeev Kapoor Recipes, powered by KloveChef and namesake of one of the co-founders, is live on Google Nest. Later this month the Sanjeev Kapoor Alexa Skill will launch internationally in the US, UK, Australia and Canada as the B2C avatar for KloveChef. The skill is already available in India and, as a preferred partner for Google’s Nest Hub and Amazon, it will top a million users this month. KloveChef, developer IOK Labs, won a 2019 Amazon Alexa Voice Award in India for most popular brand.

So what’s next for KloveChef? Shete predicts rapid growth for the company in the next year, telling YourStory that he expects “two million consumers by mid-2020.” He told Voicebot that KloveChef has developed the first Hindi skill with deeper integration on Alexa to use their Culinary AI. The company is also planning to launch with Amazon’s cook-along solution in the UK, Canada, and Australia.

Increased Competition in Voicefirst Cooking

According to Voicebot’s 2019 Smart Speaker Consumer Adoption Report, 32.7% of U.S. smart speaker owners have a device in their kitchen, behind the living room and bedroom locations. With consumers focused on convenience and time-saving when considering technology at home, voice-activated cooking guides and recipes are becoming more popular. However, at the same time, the segment has become more crowded.

Rivals offer their own takes on applying voice AI to cooking. BuzzFeed’s popular video series on food, Tasty, describes itself as “the world’s largest food network.” Users can search, watch, and cook every Tasty recipe and video all in one place. Tasty has a Google Assistant Action with a 4.5 star rating among over 350 users. Its advantage is that a built in audience through BuzzFeed and over 100 million followers on Facebook.

Food Network is another big player in kitchen assistants. At the end of this month they are launching an interactive cooking platform in collaboration with Amazon called Food Network Kitchen. This, is in addition to its other cooking initiatives and is part of the reason we named them a Top 20 Brand Innovator in Voice.

These are just some well-known brands in the space. The scale of KloveChef’s competition is easy to see with the 670 Alexa skills that come up for a “recipe” search on Amazon and a seemingly endless selection on Google Assistant. With that said, the product’s reception in India provides reason for optimism. It’s a big market because everyone eats and most people cook at some point. Klove Chef’s challenge will be rising above the clutter and attaining recognition comparable to brands that were well established on other media before coming to voice assistants.

Follow @voicebotai