Artificial Intelligence has reached its newest frontier: taste. And there’s been no shortage of media discussions about how AI has infiltrated food and beverage spaces. This week alone, The New Yorker published a gripping essay on what it means when tech bros and chatbots become tastemakers, and The New York Times reported on AI interfering with the sommeliers’ careers.
Sommeliers have noticed customers consulting ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini for recommendations. Others have seen that consumers don’t necessarily turn to these tools to choose a bottle but to receive questions they should ask their servers about the wine list. In response, certain beverage directors have even conducted crash courses for their front-of-house staff on how to respond to chatbot-generated questions from guests.
Today on the “VinePair Podcast,” Adam, Joanna, and Zach discuss ways in which AI is potentially affecting wine service in restaurants. As wine apps like CellarTracker integrate LLM-powered recommendation algorithms and some diners are more comfortable asking bots what to drink instead of the sommelier, how do restaurants and wine professionals respond? Will some establishments hand over the design of their wine programs entirely to the algorithm?
