Observations from an AI Marketing Consultant on AI for Winery Brand Growth

I’ve spent a lot of time this past quarter talking with winery owners, marketers, and operators.

Mostly listening.

What’s coming through isn’t hype or resistance to AI. It’s curiosity… mixed with a bit of uncertainty about where it actually fits in day to day.

Questions like:

How are people really using AI to find my winery?
Does this actually impact tasting room traffic or DTC or not?
What should we be doing differently right now, if anything?

Good questions.

With my feet wet, once again, now only 65 business days in the wine industry, what stood out to me in Q1 is that this shift is already happening, just unevenly. Some wineries are starting to show up in AI-driven discovery in meaningful ways, while others aren’t even aware of how they appear, and that's okay.

I'll be releasing my Winery AI Marketing Readiness Survey findings next week which I hope will be helpful guidance with some hallmarks and cost-effective recommendations.

But for now, I've pulled my Q1 2026 observations into a short viewpoint. Cheers!