AI’s First Stop: Wine Regulation

The current administration is heavily focused on cutting costs in the U.S. government. Those cuts have already hit the Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB), which is responsible for regulating alcohol in the world’s biggest wine market, from imports to wine labeling and more.

According to Wine Searcher’s Blake Gray, the federal agency has 13 percent fewer workers than last year and had to close an analysis lab in California.  In other words, they’re swamped right now. In Blake’s piece (see here), he speaks to folks at the TTB who say they’re trying to keep processing times the same, but the reality is that things can’t stay the same with less people.

Enter AI.

With two significant proposed changes to wine labels under consideration, things aren’t bound to get less busy. While software already exists to help wineries navigate the complicated mound of federal and state regulations, artificial intelligence has yet to take on antiquated government agencies. The face of these cuts is Elon Musk, who led the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) campaign to slash government spending. He also happens to run one of the world’s biggest AI companies, xAI.

Those lost TTB jobs are gone forever. And with the agency actively looking into artificial intelligence to keep processing times the same or better, we’re likely to see less humans and more robots approving wine labels and your favorite French wine onto store shelves.