This year’s BakingTECH, the American Society of Baking annual conference, offered attendees a few new alterations and improvements compared to previous years. These tweaks included a new location (sunny Orlando, a shift from wintry Chicago), a new slate of industry speakers, the Formulation Floor’s upgraded exhibit area, and more. Read on to catch highlights from the 2025 event.

Impact of AI

The various main-stage keynotes during BakingTECH 2025 featured thought leaders from the baking industry, technology experts, business experts, and others noted in their field. During the opening general session, Jose Valls, chief technology officer manufacturing with Microsoft, delivered a comprehensive overview of artificial intelligence—a hot topic but one that workers from the C-suite to the factory floor struggle to understand and apply—and ways it likely will impact baking and other industries in the future.

Valls focused his talk on AI's transformative impact on various sectors, emphasizing its rapid adoption and significant investments. In 2023, he shared, 55% of companies began using AI, rising to 75% by 2024. AI investments surged from $19 billion in 2023 to more than $44 billion in February 2025.

Valls touched upon the importance of data, infrastructure, and a strategic approach to AI integration, mentioning how his company’s AI initiatives aim to empower individuals and organizations and enhance productivity and innovation. He also pointed out that AI’s spread has been incredibly rapid even compared to the numerous technological advances (such as the World Wide Web, cloud storage, and others) the world has seen in the past few decades.

“Something unique with AI is it has been adopted in a matter of weeks, in a matter of months,” he noted. “We never had a transformation previously in the world that has been so quickly adopted and embraced by almost everybody.”

Hall of Fame

Induction into the ASB Baking Hall of Fame is considered a prestigious honor by industry pros. This year’s recipients, selected for their longstanding and impactful contributions to baking, were announced late last year and saluted in person at BakingTECH. The 2025 inductees included:

• The brothers behind pioneering bakery Orlando Baking Co. With roots dating back to 1872 in Italy, the company (still very much a family affair) is credited with introducing ciabatta to the U.S. and helping its popularity spread across the country. Also, John Orlando developed plastic peel boards for hearth-baked breads; the design (now used around the globe) helps reduce food safety risk.
• Ramon Rivera, senior vice president of operations with Grupo Bimbo, started at the company more than four decades ago and rose through the ranks. His contributions include creating what is said to be one of the most efficient supply chains in the business, focusing on producing and delivering high-quality goods.
• AIB instructor Ron Zelch taught an estimated 2,900+ individuals over the course of his career. First the primary bread and roll instructor, then teaching about cake and sweet goods, he educated future bakers from all over the planet about various categories.
• The late Henry Zobel, a chemist at the Northern Regional Research Laboratory, conducted research contributing to the elucidation of the structure of starch granules and the subsequent changes that occurred during baking and staling. The advent of anti-staling enzymes reportedly has had a huge impact on the baking industry.

Culinary creativity

The annual Product Development Competition event gives future baking pros a chance at showing their innovation potential. Each year, students in programs at universities across the country submit entries of their bright ideas for new baked goods; then, three teams get to present their concepts at a live pitch during BakingTECH. At stake is a total of $20,000 in scholarships, with the team deemed to have the best proposal by judges taking home the largest portion.

In this year’s competition (sponsored by the National Honey Board), the team from the University of Massachusetts Amherst came out on top with their HoneyCrunch baked snack. A better-for-you take on crunchy snacks like Second Nature’s Brownie Brittle, the grab-and-go product consists of thin pieces of cookie-like treats featuring honey as the primary sweetener and flavored with floral notes of lavender. Judges indicated that while all the entrants were worthy of recognition, they were reportedly especially taken by the MassAm team entry’s originality, creativity, quality, and market potential.

In second place was the Cornell University team. Their product, prOATS!, is a bite-size cookie containing peanuts, oats, and the featured ingredient, honey; additionally, the prototype cookie features a bit of caffeine for an added energy boost. The third-place team, hailing from Oregon State University, presented Garden Box Cookies, a crunchy snack drizzled with honey caramel.

Professional insights

The BakingTECH 2025 agenda, as in previous years, featured keynote presentations, technical talks, and insightful presentations from a range of industry experts. On the BAKE Talk stage located adjacent to the Formulation Floor exhibit area, representatives from up-and-coming producers, experienced veterans, supplier companies, and others led brief but informative discussions on everything from effective leadership to co-manufacturing considerations, to navigating challenging safety issues, and beyond.

One of the BAKE Talk speakers on the slate was Shanel Adams, senior catering and wholesale manager of Dog Tag Bakery. During her “Social Impact Bakery: Empowering Through Baking” talk, Adams shared the producer’s unique model of empowering military veterans through employment, business education, and other development efforts. She shared that in addition to working to provide servicemen and women with business and baking industry training they can apply to careers in this or other fields, their production facility offers an environment that goes to great lengths to ensure the special needs of military veterans with injuries, post-traumatic stress disorder, and other challenges are met so they can thrive.

“As we go and as we get more veterans and alumni that come through the program, we make sure that we equip our bakery to be able to make meet their needs, but as well as help them advocate for when they get into the workforce,” she shared. ““Some veterans come in, and they need to put on shades because they do not like the bright light. We found dimmers. Another thing is with wheelchairs—we have mapped out the bakery so anywhere you go in the bakery is wheelchair-accessible, even within the kitchen.”

While BakingTECH 2025 has barely cooled off, ASB has already issued a heads-up for next year—on Monday, March 10, the organization will begin fielding pitches for 2026 talks, sessions, and other features. Stay tuned to snackandbakery.com for more information.

Related: ASB BakingTECH 2025 offers up-to-the-minute industry knowledge