A product that existed
as a concept and nothing else.
Aivin set out to build an AI sommelier assistant for the wine trade — comprehensive wine knowledge, guest recommendations, inventory, pairings, tasting management. What existed at the start was the idea and the industry expertise behind it.
The situation,as it arrived.
Wine is a category where expertise is genuinely deep and genuinely scarce. A sommelier's judgment is the product, and the question was whether that judgment could be made available to wine shops, restaurants and collectors who cannot employ one.
Building it meant a real product rather than a demonstration: something a sommelier would use in service and not be embarrassed by in front of a guest.
Four moves,in the order they happened.
Design the assistant around the expert, not around the model
The interaction designed so it augments a sommelier's capability rather than replacing a judgment it cannot make. What the assistant is allowed to assert is a design decision before it is a technical one.
Build it on the Assistants API
A generative assistant built on OpenAI's Assistants API, carrying wine knowledge, personalised recommendations, pairing logic and inventory awareness.
Give it a business to sit in
Information architecture, UI and UX, content and a WordPress build so the product had a market-facing presence, plus an interactive demo so a buyer could experience the assistant rather than read about it.
Launch it in front of the trade
Go-to-market work culminating in the launch at Great Wines of the World in Miami, in front of the professional audience whose adoption decides whether a product like this is real.
The brand,as it actually shipped.
Everything thatleft the building.
- Generative AI assistant on the OpenAI Assistants API
- Interaction design and conversational UX
- Information architecture, UI and UX
- Content and WordPress build
- Interactive product demo
- Go-to-market strategy and launch
More like this one.One a month.
Written out of engagements rather than off a content calendar, by whichever principal ran the work. No sequence afterwards.
Your situation is not this one.Tell us what it is.
A senior strategist reads it and replies within one business day, with a straight answer about whether we are the right people.