From the shop floor to AI Sommelier

I spent more than 20 years working in wine and spirits retail. My job was never simply to sell bottles. It was to listen carefully, understand what a customer really needed, and help them choose with confidence.

A conversation might begin with a Sunday roast, a celebration, a quiet night at home, or a gift where the meaning mattered more than the price.

I learned something early on: the magic is not in the product catalogue. It is in the guidance.

But as more shopping moved online, that guidance began to disappear. Websites could list thousands of products, but they could not listen, ask questions, or reassure someone who was unsure what to choose.

Customers were left alone with product grids, filters, tasting notes, and search boxes.

More choice did not necessarily make shopping easier. It often created more uncertainty.

That was the problem I wanted to solve.

I realised that AI could not replace the human relationships that make specialist retail valuable. But it could help make a retailer’s knowledge available to far more people.

It could help customers after the store had closed. It could speak their language. It could understand a meal, occasion, budget, or preference and recommend something the retailer actually had in stock.

So I built Pinpointed AI Sommelier, shaped by decades of real conversations with wine customers.

Pinpointed does not simply answer questions or search a product catalogue. It listens, understands, narrows the choice, and helps the customer make a confident decision.

Today, that same idea extends beyond wine. Coffee, fragrance, books, and other specialist products all present the same challenge: customers often know what they want to experience, but not what product name to type into a search box.

Because people should not need to be experts to buy expertly. The future of specialist retail is not more search. It is better guidance.