Etilika’s AI Sommelier: Revolutionizing Wine Pairing with Knowledge Graphs

Introduction

Etilika is an online platform offering a wide selection of Italian wines, champagne, and spirits. Focusing on quality labels, it provides a convenient way for wine enthusiasts across the country to explore and purchase a variety of premium beverages from Italy’s rich wine-making tradition.

We started an innovative journey together to enhance their user experience by developing an internal search tool that allows users to search for wines through food pairings. 

This initiative led to the development of the AI Sommelier, designed to enhance the customer experience by using an advanced system that organizes and connects data meaningfully. It builds on industry-specific knowledge to better understand wines and spirits. This setup allows the AI Sommelier to provide personalized recommendations and expert advice, making it easier for customers to find what they’re looking for and discover new products, all based on deep insights into the sector.

This case study explores the results obtained by Etilika thanks to proprietary data and knowledge graph: a new way of storing, organizing, and connecting your store products, which gives them more visibility and starts selling for free on Google Shopping.

Results

The implementation of the Product Knowledge Graph and the optimization of Etilika’s data infrastructure brought impressive results, driving user engagement and site performance to new heights. Here’s what was achieved:

Boost in Clicks: Clicks increased by an impressive 22.13% from April 11 to May 6, 2024, compared to the previous period.

Sustained Growth: The momentum continued, with a further 7.23% increase in clicks from April to August 2024, highlighting long-term impact.

Google Merchant Success: Optimized data readability has begun driving traffic from Google Merchant Listings, opening new avenues through the Product Knowledge Panel and Google Shopping.

Products Performance

Comparison of the Last 3 Months of 2024 vs. the Last 3 Months of 2023:

40% improvement in average ranking

This case proves that leveraging AI and data optimization can lead to significant growth in traffic, better search rankings, and new business opportunities—perfect for e-commerce platforms like Etilika looking to enhance customer engagement and sales. 

Objectives

Etilika chose WordLift to boost traffic to product pages through organic search. The new pages are created using Agent WordLift. The editorial team of Etilika now has an AI companion to support their SEO strategies for clustering products and naturally responding to ever-changing search queries.

Etilika recognized the need to provide a more personalized and intelligent wine selection experience for its customers. Traditional shopping assistants lacked the depth to make nuanced recommendations, especially for food pairings. To address this, Etilika aimed to build an AI-driven solution that could tap into its extensive wine collection, offering more sophisticated and accurate suggestions.

Strategy

The success of the AI Sommelier relies on the strategic use of proprietary data and the development of a knowledge graph, made possible through WordLift’s expertise.

Proprietary Data: Etilika’s extensive wine ontology serves as the foundation for the AI Sommelier. This proprietary data includes detailed information about various wines, their characteristics, and suitable food pairings. By leveraging this data, Etilika can offer unique and highly relevant recommendations that generic models cannot match.

Knowledge Graph: a knowledge graph helps to organize and structure this data, making searching, discovering, and extracting insights easier. For Etilika, the knowledge graph connects wines, food types, and pairing rules, enabling the AI Sommelier to make informed and accurate recommendations. This interconnected data model allows the AI to understand complex queries and provide contextually appropriate responses.

With this integration, Etilika has been able to create many new category pages for SEO purposes in just a few days. These pages are now attracting traffic from search queries that were previously overlooked, such as pairing specific wines with food.

Building a Sector-Specific Knowledge Base

Creating a sector-specific knowledge base, or ontology, is essential for training an AI model that can deliver intelligent and specialized responses. 

Etilika’s ontology includes:

Wine Characteristics: detailed attributes of wines, such as grape variety, region, flavor profile, and aging potential.

Food Types: various food categories, including meats, seafood, vegetables, and desserts, along with their specific characteristics.

Pairing Rules: guidelines and principles for pairing wines with different foods, considering factors like flavor balance, acidity, and texture.

Key Features of AI Sommelier

Advanced Wine Pairing: the AI Sommelier uses a knowledge graph to relate different data points, such as wine characteristics, food types, and pairing rules, to offer precise wine recommendations.

Sector-Specific Ontology: by building a specialized knowledge base, or ontology, Etilika ensured that the AI Sommelier could understand and respond to queries with a level of expertise that surpasses generic models.

Enhanced User Experience: the AI Sommelier’s ability to provide intelligent and context-aware suggestions significantly improves the user experience, making wine selection more enjoyable and informed

We’re providing access to the Etilika catalog for both Microsoft Copilot users and ChatGPT Subscribers.

Conclusion

Etilika’s AI Sommelier case study is an ensign to the power of proprietary data, knowledge graphs, and sector-specific ontologies in creating intelligent and specialized AI solutions. By building a specific data model and a comprehensive wine anthology, we have developed an agent that offers advanced functionalities and responds to complex queries with expertise. The AI Sommelier not only enhances the user experience but also sets a new standard for intelligent wine selection in the e-commerce industry.

An innovative approach that demonstrates the importance of investing in proprietary data and building specialized knowledge bases to train AI models capable of delivering superior performance and value to users. The significant improvements in user engagement and site performance underscore the effectiveness of this strategy, paving the way for future advancements in AI-driven e-commerce solutions.

Want to see how Wordlift can transform your business too? Contact us today for a personalized consultation.

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