Announcing the second edition of Appetite for Success, Jack Payne’s Definitive Guide to Maximizing Technology in the Food and Beverage Industry; Sponsored by Aptean, the new edition expands the playbook for leaders navigating the AI era

Industry champion Jack Payne builds on his practical guide with new chapters on AI, technology ROI, and the benefits of a unified enterprise platform—essential reading for food and beverage leaders operating in an AI-driven market

ALPHARETTA, Ga., July 21, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Aptean, the AI company built for industry, is pleased to announce the second edition of Appetite for Success: Thriving with Technology in the Food and Beverage Industry. Written by food and beverage technology expert Jack Payne, the expanded guide gives operational leaders a practical roadmap for digital transformation, from building a technology strategy and calculating return on investment to understanding how AI agents, unified platforms, and the future workforce will reshape operations.

A New Edition for a New Era

When the first edition of Appetite for Success was published, digital transformation was an ongoing project for most food and beverage companies. Today, the urgency is undeniable. Supply chains are more volatile, and regulatory requirements are more demanding. With 40% of food and beverage companies already deploying AI, competitive pressure has never been greater.

The second edition responds directly to those shifts. Payne—who has spent more than four decades working alongside food and beverage manufacturers, distributors, and producers worldwide—expands the original framework with critical new content across four areas defining today’s transformation agenda.

What’s New in This Edition:

Calculating and justifying technology ROI: A practical framework for forecasting the business value of technology investments before committing, built around four key financial drivers: efficiency, inventory, revenue, and revenue leakage. Payne makes the case that ROI planning should happen during evaluation, not after implementation.

AI in food and beverage operations: A grounded, jargon-free examination of how AI is already reshaping demand forecasting, production scheduling, quality control, and compliance—with practical guidance on AI adoption that delivers measurable results.

Agentic AI and the future workforce: An exploration of AI agents and how digital workers with specialized capabilities work alongside employees to delegate routine tasks, amplify skills, and expand what can be accomplished. Payne draws a parallel to the adoption of robotics in manufacturing decades ago—once feared as a threat to jobs, it created more strategic roles for people.

The unified enterprise platform: A forward-looking examination of how integrated enterprise AI software platforms bring enterprise resource planning (ERP), manufacturing execution systems (MES), enterprise asset management (EAM), product lifecycle management (PLM), transportation management systems (TMS), and other systems together into a connected ecosystem. AI operates across the full stack to surface insights, automate cross-system processes, and empower every employee through role-based workspaces.

Written for Industry Insiders, By an Industry Expert

Appetite for Success is not a theoretical exploration of what technology can do. It’s a practitioner’s guide built on lived experience. Payne draws on hundreds of facility tours, customer engagements, and implementation projects across protein, dairy, bakery, beverage, snack foods, and other sub-verticals. Every chapter reflects practical lessons from the plant floor to the boardroom.

“The pressure to modernize is real, and food and beverage leaders do not have time for theory. Jack Payne has spent decades alongside these businesses, and it shows,” said TVN Reddy, CEO, Aptean. “This is a practitioner's guide built on hard-won experience. Appetite for Success gives industry leaders the framework to move forward with confidence.”

“Technology isn't a support system anymore, it's a competitive differentiator,” said Jack Payne, food and beverage industry expert at Aptean. “This second edition is for leaders who need clarity on how to move forward with AI and digital transformation. It's about making smart decisions, measuring real outcomes, and building an operation that doesn't just survive what's coming, but thrives.” 

Availability

Appetite for Success: Thriving with Technology in the Food and Beverage Industry, Second Edition, is available now on Amazon. To learn more and access additional resources from Jack Payne, visit https://www.aptean.com/en-US/appetite-for-success-jack-payne.

About Aptean

Aptean is an AI company built for industrial business. For medium and enterprise manufacturers, distributors, and wholesalers facing rising costs, shrinking margins, and operational complexity, Aptean embeds AI directly into the workflows, decisions, and data your business already runs on - so intelligence isn’t a bolt-on, it’s how the work gets done. The result: faster decisions, lower costs, and measurable margin improvement delivered through an ongoing partnership, not a one-off implementation. Headquartered in Alpharetta, Georgia, with offices across North America, Europe, and Asia-Pacific. Learn more at aptean.com.

Media Contacts:

Geraldine O’Neill
Geraldine.ONeill@aptean.com
John McCurdy
John.McCurdy@aptean.com