Salesforce's tAIster AI Agent Gets Two of Three Wines Right in Dreamforce Tasting Test

The session took place in an executive lounge away from the main Dreamforce event area. Participants were handed three glasses of unidentified wine and connected to the agent by scanning a QR code with a smartphone. According to TechRadar, tAIster had been taught the taste, feel, aroma and other attributes of around 400,000 wines.

Before each taste, the agent asked participants to describe the wine's appearance in a few keywords and how grippy it felt in the glass. It then asked for a description of the aroma and finally the taste, aiming to collect enough detail to name the wine being poured.

The TechRadar reporter, who described himself as not a serious wine enthusiast, said he tried to be as descriptive as possible. The agent named his first two samples correctly. On the third, it guessed Veuve Clicquot champagne rather than Chardonnay, after the reporter mentioned that small bubbles had appeared in the glass.

TechRadar called the exercise a fun example of what AI agents might do in unexpected areas, while noting it remains a proof of concept; the reporter wrote that he did not think working sommeliers would be worried by it yet.

The tasting sits within Salesforce's broader push into AI agents, which the company has marketed in recent years as tools that handle tasks for customers around the world. TechRadar noted that AI has proved useful for sifting through large volumes of data and for removing drudgery from reporting and administrative work, but that senses such as taste, smell and touch present a different kind of problem. The article also pointed to growing interest among some consumers in experiences that keep a human element as AI takes on more everyday tasks.