Greetings from New York. AI-powered Pizza? Yes. Ooni (the makers of my favorite outdoor pizza oven) has announced an AI-powered indoor version called the Volt 2. This is actually more exciting than the AI-powered GE Profile Smart Indoor Smoker I got after seeing it at CES.
Anyone who has attempted serious pizza making indoors knows the drill: smoke alarms screaming, windows thrown open in January, and that inevitable moment when half your crust chars while the other half stays pale. Ooni says the Volt 2 addresses these pain points with an integrated steam and smoke filter (finally!), as well as heating elements that span the entire pizza stone for consistent temperature distribution.
Available Oct. 1, the Volt 2 is a $699 indoor electric pizza oven featuring "Pizza Intelligence," a patent-pending adaptive heating system that uses real-time sensor data to dynamically balance heat between top and bottom heating elements (which should eliminate cold spots and temperature fluctuations). I'm not sure that this is actually AI, but I'm giving them the benefit of the doubt. The oven is spec'd to reach 850 F in 20 minutes and cook a 13-inch Neapolitan pizza in 90 seconds.
As you can tell from my boyish physique, I love pizza! I especially love making pizza for family gatherings. The Volt 2 has me excited about the potential to take the party indoors, and – as you can imagine — I'm amused by the concept of an AI-Pizza-CoPilot. Will I still find it funny when I get my first humanoid robot that, among the thousand other things it can do, makes pizza better than I do? That's the race to the end state for pizza.
As always, your thoughts and comments are both welcome and encouraged. -s
About Shelly Palmer
Shelly Palmer is the Professor of Advanced Media in Residence at Syracuse University’s S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications and CEO of The Palmer Group, a consulting practice that helps Fortune 500 companies with technology, media and marketing. Named LinkedIn’s “Top Voice in Technology,” he covers tech and business for Good Day New York, is a regular commentator on CNN and writes a popular daily business blog. He's a bestselling author, and the creator of the popular, free online course, Generative AI for Execs. Follow @shellypalmer or visit shellypalmer.com.
