Grilling and barbecuing have been pretty commonplace for decades. Throw a steak, brisket, or pork butt on the grill, keep an eye on the temperature, and drink beer until it’s done. There was innovation, of course, but the heart of the exercise was relatively technology-free. Like many things, however, this may change as artificial intelligence becomes more widespread.
Just as companies in other industries are chasing the stock surge that comes with AI, the outdoor cooking industry is also keeping a close eye on the technology. And smart grilling is one of the latest trends to expand the audience and make things easier for suburban DIYers.
The outdoor cooking industry had $6.8 billion in sales in 2022. And some of the biggest names are publicly traded, though maybe not always the names you see on the floor at Home Depot or Lowe’s. Middleby Corp., for example, owns the Kamado Joe and Masterbuilt brands. Traeger Grills began trading in 2021. Weber, another industry giant, was publicly traded until last year, when BDT Capital Partners chose to take it private. And WC Bradley Co., which owns Char-Grill, Pit Boss and Oklahoma Joe’s among others, is also currently privately held.
However, the audience is a bit stagnant. Grilles are not an annual purchase for most people. And while grill manufacturers offer plenty of accessories to boost revenue between big purchases, from pizza stones to specialty pellets or charcoal, the manufacturer’s dream is to expand the audience without alienating the existing customer base.
“AI is going to be interesting in the outdoor cooking space,” says Josh Silva, vice president of marketing at Middleby Outdoor. “There’s a balance between how much we give consumers and what level of convenience they want, because there’s something to be said for fire care and that live fire experience.” It will be incumbent on us to find the right balance of providing the right set of features in the technology, whether it’s convenience or additional engagement opportunities… You don’t want to take away from the whole experience.”
Proponents of artificial intelligence in outdoor cooking say it simplifies the process. Seergrills, a UK startup, grabbed attention at CES earlier this year with the Perfecta, an AI-powered vertical infrared oven that reaches temperatures of over 1,600 degrees and cooks a steak in less than three minutes with no flipping required . Built-in temperature sensors detect when food has reached your preferred temperature, whether it’s rare, medium or well done; then the heat stops.
“When using traditional cooking methods, there are approximately eight variables that one needs to consider,” said Suraj Sudera, CEO and founder of Seergrills. “These include food thickness, fat and water content, starting temperature, transfer temperature, ambient temperature, heat source variability, food exacerbations and flexibility. It takes years of practice for the most experienced grillers to hone their skills and overcome common challenges like dryness or over- and under-grilling. AI grilling offers significant benefits by allowing the system to monitor variables and account for them by controlling the cooking system.”
Perfeta’s AI uses subjective user feedback and objective sensor data to improve by taking readings every second of cooking time.
All players in the field are putting more emphasis on smart grilling technology. In 2021, Weber acquired the smart appliance and technology company June, with which it had previously worked to develop its Weber Connect grill technology.
The new Kamado Joe and Masterbuilt models are also much smarter than the grills most people are used to. The Kamado Joe Konnected will light charcoal with the push of a button and allow users to set their preferred temperature, keeping the grill at exactly that level – eliminating the sometimes arduous task of constantly monitoring the fire for hours of cooking so that the food finishes at desire.
Meanwhile, the Masterbuilt Gravity XT, due out in April, offers a gravity charcoal system that provides indirect heat via a fan and digital controller. Like the Konnected, it maintains the optimal temperature electronically without the need for human supervision, with approximately 2.5 times more cooking space than the average grill.
The point of this technology? Convenience. Gas grills became popular because people could instantly start a fire, cook whatever they wanted, and then go about their day without worrying about lighting the grill and maintaining a constant temperature. By adding AI and smart features to new grills, whether charcoal or electric, manufacturers hope to increase the amount of time people spend cooking outdoors after the weekend.
Kamado cooking, for example, has a market share of just 3% of the total cooking market, in part because the process can be confusing. The addition of connected technology, Middleby hopes, will expand that market.
“We designed this product [the Kamado Joe Konnected] to pursue a new category of people,” says Silva.
When adding these features to new grills, however, the company wants to be careful not to alienate current loyal users.
“That’s why we left the ability to control things manually,” says Silva. “We realized that there is a portion of our core users who like this handheld experience. It’s really a balancing act in many ways to say how much technology is too much… AI was the talking point at CES, but what does it actually mean, especially in our space? Is it a system that helps you perfect your cooking process? For us, where we are right now is more about an algorithm and refining it to get smarter over time.”
Sudera agrees that traditionalists will make up the majority of the market in the short term. Over time, however, he expects AI and other smart features to become more standard for outdoor cooking devices.
“[As] with most things in life, there will be an element of the market that remains loyal to traditional techniques, just like people who still drive with gearshifts,” he says. “However, over time, convenience technologies gradually expand their market share, starting with modest adoption until they reach a critical mass where they largely displace older technologies.”
If true, this could dramatically expand the market. Allied Market Research estimates that the barbecue grill market will more than double in value to $12.8 billion by 2032.
