Are wine and spirits behind when it comes to AI?
How is AI-driven software being used to create truly personalised experiences in the alcoholic beverage space? And how far behind other industries is the wine and spirits sector when it comes to digitalisation? Watch our latest video to learn more.
Artificial intelligence (AI) technology is a growing phenomenon – and several professionals weighed in on how wine, spirits and hospitality professionals can harness the power of AI to enhance their operations.
At ProWein 2025, a group of experts engaged in a panel discussion at The Spirits Business Hub, titled: How AI-driven software is driving personalised experiences.
The speakers included: Andrew Sussman, co-founder and CTO of Preferabli; Danny Cooper, chief information and digital officer at Virgin Wines; Jose Amado-Blanco, CEO of Vinarte Migros Gruppe, and Colin Hampden-White, whisky expert and part of the Preferabli team. Patrick Schmitt MW, editor-in-chief of the drinks business, moderated the discussion.
The talk was accompanied by a tasting of three rare whiskies: Dailuaine 1997, Auchroisk 1996 and BenRiach The Twenty One, selected and presented by Hampden-White. Hampden-White has written many tasting notes for Preferabli and translated the tasting notes for those wines and spirits into numbers, which can then be cross-referenced across products that share similar characteristics.
“My [Preferabli] co-founder Pam [Dillon] and I, when we started this, we would talk to people about AI and they had absolutely no idea what we were talking about,” Sussman said. “How many people here at this point have played with ChatGPT at least once, right? Almost everybody. That is a form of AI that we refer to as a large language model, or generative AI.”
He continued: “I did ask ChatGPT this morning, I said I would like for you to explain what large language model-based AI is good at and what it is not good at, particularly as it related to recommendations for wine and spirits.
“You’ll see there are certain things it’s very good at: versatility in content generation, natural language understanding, training and adaptability. But where it lacks finesse, where it lacks a certain amount of analytical rigor, is personalisation capabilities that are truly based on what you would find to be appealing.”
Sussman showed the audience examples of how AI technology can be used to help consumers build a more personalised reference point regarding flavours they like, products they like, and from there, to receive digitally generated recommendations for similar products.
Wine sector ‘hugely, hugely behind’
A concerning point raised by the panellists was how far behind the alcohol industry is when it comes to embracing modern technology.
The Covid-19 pandemic, for example, showed how extensively the wine and spirits sector had underestimated and invested in e-commerce channels.
So, how far behind is the sector?
“I do think in general, the wine industry is not very digitalised,” said Amado-Blanco. “Especially in AI, we’re very, very behind.”
Cooper strongly concurred: “Hugely, hugely behind. The fashion industry 20 years ago started launching mobile apps, started getting into algorithmic AI, so very early AI, looking at how it could recognise patterns of buying habits and customers, and marketing and all of this stuff.
“Certainly Virgin Wines is one of the top-tier online retailers in the UK, and the entire industry at that level is probably 10/15 years behind the rest of the industry in terms of e-commerce. So, when you’re looking at the tech, the way that technology is used – both within the companies and the way it connects with the consumer is quite far behind.”
To learn more about harnessing the power of AI to improve wine, spirits and hospitality operations, watch our latest video via the link below, or head to The Spirits Business’ YouTube channel for more.
Related news
