sommify.ai

Sommify.ai is a Finland-based wine technology company founded in late 2022 by CEO Jacob Pichna and Eemeli Saarensilta, which operates primarily in the business-to-business software sector. The firm targets wine distributors, retailers, and on-trade businesses (like restaurants) with a suite of artificial intelligence tools designed to increase wine sales and operational efficiency. The company's core offering is an AI platform built upon the extensive, 20-year expertise of world-class sommelier Julie Dupouy, who collaborated on the project starting in 2021. Dupouy, originally from France and now based in Ireland, is a highly decorated sommelier, having won Ireland's best sommelier competition four times and placing third in the ASI World Sommelier Championship in 2016. Her deep knowledge of wine characteristics and food pairings forms the proprietary dataset that powers the AI model, differentiating it from more generalized large language models.

The business model is subscription-based, offering clients a flat monthly fee for access to its AI-driven services. Sommify.ai provides several key solutions for its clients. The primary product is an 'AI Sales Agent' for distributors, which automates the creation of wine offers and marketing materials. This tool analyzes a distributor's entire wine portfolio—which can consist of thousands of wines—to select ideal options for a restaurant's menu, a task that would be impossible for a human salesperson to perform comprehensively. For retailers and on-trade clients, the company offers products like 'Somm Pair' for matching wines to recipes, and 'Somm Chat', an AI-powered advisor for end-consumers. A key value proposition is the rapid, plug-and-play integration; clients provide their wine portfolio and receive a dedicated domain to begin using the service.

Early pilot programs have demonstrated a tangible return on investment. A campaign with major retailer Tesco resulted in a 40% cross-sell rate, where shoppers purchasing meal ingredients also added a wine suggested by the Sommify.ai tool. The company positions itself as a way for businesses in the traditional wine industry to adopt digital solutions and gain a competitive advantage. While founded in Helsinki, the company is backed by beverage-focused investors like Heino Group and Gorilla Capital.

Keywords: AI sommelier, wine technology, B2B software, wine sales automation, wine distribution tool, restaurant wine list, wine pairing AI, on-trade sales, beverage industry AI, retail wine solutions, digital wine marketing, Jacob Pichna, Julie Dupouy, wine portfolio management, AI sales generation, Heino Group, Gorilla Capital, wine data analysis, customer engagement, food and wine pairing