Don't invest unless you're prepared to lose all the money you invest. This is a high-risk investment and you are unlikely to be protected if something goes wrong. Take 2 mins to learn more.

September 14, 2026

By Annabel

Is Taste Our Last Defence Against AI?

Where does taste lie and how do we cultivate it?

Ever since Taylor Wescoatt's session at our founder retreat, I've been thinking more and more about taste. Not in the food sense (although I'm always here for a good restaurant*) but in the creative, intangible sense. In line with Love Ventures' 'vocal' value, I thought I'd set out exactly what I think about it.

The thing about taste is that it can't be taught or spat out by AI. It's complex and layered, a mosaic of the experiences and exposures we accumulate throughout life. As Taylor put it, 'a kind of magic'. The reason I'm so fascinated by it right now is that I believe it's the last defence we have against AI.

For AI to have the same taste as humans, it would need to have seen things in the flesh: the intricately woven detail of a Persian rug, or the way the light catches Klimt's 'The Kiss' as you stand in front of it. These are the things that build an innate sense of what is beautiful and what is tasteful. You could try to describe it to an AI model, but it won't cut the mustard (not that I think mustard is that tasty, by the way). Taste is embodied in a way AI will never be. It doesn't get to look back and cringe at photos of what your younger self was wearing, or want the room to swallow you up when you put your foot in it at a drinks party. It has never had to process failure, or learn to read an eerie silence and know something is 'off key' before anyone says anything.

Taste in people

Taste is the special sauce when it comes to backing founders and hiring talent. It extends into gut feeling territory too, as Pac O'Shea (CEO of Round) put it at our offsite when talking about hiring for GTM people, do you get on with these people? You're far more likely to be sold by someone you like as you want to do good by them.

The precursor to taste in people is simply noticing. Notice how they make others feel or notice people's body language around them. We all know charisma is a double edged sword, but it's more than that - do they leave people energised or drained, and do they listen before launching into a monologue about something similar they once did? This matters, because if you're backing or hiring people now, they had better be good with people. Otherwise, couldn't AI do the job too?

Taste in design

Being able to look at a brand or a set of marketing materials and instinctively know it's off, or just a bit 'meh'. That takes years of looking at design and branding. It isn't learned in one module, it's built by exposure to heaps of work that hits the nail on the head. AI can get you competent but it can't tell you why something is competent and still wrong.

This can also be about the details; speaking to Dan Jelly at ComplyFirst he raved about his Head of Design who absolutely nails the details, always going the extra mile. For example, for their charity poker night she designed ComplyFirst playing cards where team members were depicted as Kings and Queens. I am a strong believer that the devil is in the details, the add up and make the difference.

Taylor said he couldn’t put into words how to spot good design. He attributed his eye for it to years at design school, working alongside designers, and hiring them. He also said taste isn’t quantifiable, it changes with the times and across different groups. A crucial point because taste isn’t uniform or objective, it appeals to different clusters and communities of people in different ways, it is your job to work out who your taste appeals to. 

Taste in ideas

This is about knowing what not to include. The CEO of Shopify nicely summarised the height of laziness as the copying and pasting a deluge of AI output without editing it (absolutely mind-numbing behaviour, I agree). If you can't be bothered to tailor and trim something, why should I be bothered to read it? In the words of Kurt Vonnegut “Use the time of a total stranger in such a way that they will not feel the time was wasted.”

Taste here is knowing what's important and what's noise, filtering out the fluff to get to the crux of an idea. 

There are plenty of good ideas out there but the trick is having the nose (and dare I say, the taste) to know which one is worth pursuing and using your judgement to do so. 

How do we cultivate taste?

I don't think there's a playbook, and it would be a bit sad if there were a 'Taste Guide for Dummies'. You build it through life experience and exposure to as many different people as possible. Filmmaker Jim Jarmusch got about as close as anyone has with advice on how to cultivate taste:

"Nothing is original. Steal from anywhere that resonates with inspiration or fuels your imagination. Devour old films, new films, music, books, paintings, photographs, poems, dreams, random conversations, architecture, bridges, street signs, trees, clouds, bodies of water, light and shadows. Select only things to steal from that speak directly to your soul. If you do this, your work (and theft) will be authentic. Authenticity is invaluable; originality is non-existent. And don't bother concealing your thievery, celebrate it if you feel like it. In any case, always remember what Jean-Luc Godard said: 'It's not where you take things from, it's where you take them to.'"

So be inspired by the things that light you up and by the people building what you wish you'd thought of. Speak to strangers, ask what their coffee order is, pay it forward, put yourself out there and hone your taste radar.

What this means

I’m so intrigued by this that I want to build a band of tastemakers: the people with an impeccable eye for detail and for the things that matter, who might not be on anyone else’s list. (I’ve since found there’s a Substack called Tastemakers, so I’ve inadvertently stolen the term - oops)

I’d love to know who in your network just gets it right in a particular area - drop me a DM with your thoughts.

Ultimately, taste is the ability to recognise the outlier that is better than everything else.

*London favourites are: BRAT, Carmel, Oma and Angelina