Etsy combines ML models, LLM technology and AI-powered algorithms to create personalised shopping experiences across 100 million handcrafted product listings
AI STRATEGY
ETSY
Etsy combines ML models, LLM technology and AI-powered algorithms to create personalised shopping experiences across 100 million handcrafted product listings
Etsy has found a clever way to tackle one of the biggest debates in AI: whether machines should replace human judgment or work alongside it. Its answer is a coined term called“ algotorial” curation.
This works through Etsy’ s trend spotters: humans who hand-pick about 50 items that perfectly capture a particular aesthetic.
Then the algorithms take over, by expanding these carefully curated collections from 50 items to around 1,000, using the human selections as a template for what‘ good’ looks like.
The NLP then comes in handy for matching what buyers want with what sellers are offering.
The system learns from browsing habits and purchase history to suggest things that actually fit someone’ s taste.
“Rather than removing human expertise from our merchandising work, we’ re leveraging these tools to amplify the expertise of our team”
Nick Daniel,
Chief Product Officer,
Etsy
120 October 2025