The news: Influencer marketing platform ShopMy introduced a personal shopping service, Noir, for top customers on its app. The text-based service lets users post requests—for example, recommendations on what to wear to a wedding in Miami—that can be “claimed” by creators, who earn commissions on successful recommendations.

Why it matters: ShopMy is positioning the feature as an antidote to AI- and algorithm-driven shopping. As consumers look to AI for product recommendations, that is removing “taste and the human element” from the experience, co-founder Tiffany Lopinsky told the Business of Fashion. “The thing that makes me want to buy something is when a person tells me why it’s good for me. This [feature] taps into that.”

Adding that human touch could help ShopMy stand out as more retailers and marketplaces rely on AI to deliver recommendations. While ShopMy also uses AI to personalize user profiles and suggest creators to follow, its focus is on delivering a curated experience built around influencers’ sway over purchases to drive sales and engagement. By tapping creators to offer their shopping expertise, ShopMy aims to emulate the long-standing retail practice of rewarding “very important clients” with high-touch perks to increase loyalty and lifetime value.

Implications for retail: ShopMy’s human-powered recommendation system reveals a potential weakness of AI shopping assistants: While those tools can be effective at suggesting products based on measurable factors—such as whether a product has certain features or what buyers have said about it—they may be less useful in categories with more subjective purchase considerations, such as apparel.

Retailers need to think about the possible limits of AI recommendations and what other trusted sources can be tapped to fill the gaps. Ultimately, consumers are most swayed by input from real people, whether that’s family, friends, or verified buyers who leave reviews on company websites.