Never Buy a Bad Gift Again — Here's How AI Gift Recommendations Actually Work
Finding the perfect gift in the UK has always meant one of two things: you either know the person well enough to get it exactly right, or you panic-buy something safe and slightly disappointing. More Like This was built to fix that. Type in something the person already loves — a whisky they drink, a candle they burn, a perfume they wear — and the AI finds three real alternatives available right now from UK retailers. It's not a wishlist tool. It's not a curated shop. It's a live search engine that works backwards from what someone loves to find what they'll love next.
Here's how to use it properly — and how to build an unofficial profile for every person on your list so that next birthday, Christmas, Father's Day, or completely random Tuesday, you're never stuck again.
How the Gift Recommendation Feature Works
The premise is simple. You type in something real — a product, a brand, a description — and More Like This searches live UK retailer inventory to return three options:
- Closest Match — the best alternative that mirrors what you searched for as closely as possible
- Second Match — a well-matched option that comes at it from a slightly different angle
- Wildcard — an unexpected find that shares the same core appeal but might surprise them (in the best way)
No paid placements. No affiliate rankings pushing certain brands to the top. Retailers searched include The Whisky Exchange, Master of Malt, Majestic Wine, Harvey Nichols, Selfridges, John Lewis, Waitrose, Neal's Yard, Fortnum & Mason, Ocado, and more. The AI — powered by Anthropic's Claude — is pulling from real stock, not a curated database of sponsored products.
The categories already covered include single malt whisky, gin, rum, bourbon, Irish whiskey, red and white wine, Champagne, Prosecco, rosé, craft beer, artisan coffee, speciality tea, craft chocolate, artisan cheese, fine fragrance, luxury candles, and skincare. More are being added regularly.
The Real Power: Building a Profile for Everyone on Your List
This is where it gets genuinely useful. Most people in your life have consistent tastes — they just don't always tell you what they want. But if you pay attention, you already know more than you think. The trick is turning those observations into a working gift profile you can use all year round.
Your Dad: The Whisky Loyalist
He's had the same bottle on the sideboard for fifteen years. Glenfiddich 12. Maybe Jameson's on a casual night. He's not a collector — he just knows what he likes and sees no reason to change. Search "Glenfiddich 12" on More Like This and you'll get proper alternatives he'd genuinely drink: something like Auchentoshan Three Wood, which shares that approachable, malt-forward quality but adds a richness from triple-cask maturation. Or Teeling Small Batch, which is consistently one of the best-value Irish whiskies on the shelf right now. The Wildcard might take him somewhere he wouldn't go himself — and that's exactly the point of a good gift.
Your Mum: The Candle and Skincare Person
She has a Diptyque Baies on the windowsill and a Clarins Double Serum on the bathroom shelf. She doesn't experiment much because she's found what works. Search "Diptyque Baies" and you'll find candles that match that clean, rose-and-blackcurrant warmth without being a straight copy. Search "Clarins Double Serum" and the AI will pull up skincare alternatives at similar or better quality — the kind of thing she'd never buy herself but would immediately love. Neal's Yard and Selfridges both stock the sort of thing that lands well here.
Your Best Friend: The Wine Person Who Always Brings Something Good
They always arrive with a bottle that's interesting without being pretentious. Maybe it's always a Côtes de Provence rosé — Whispering Angel, or something in that register. Search "Whispering Angel" and you'll get alternatives like Mirabeau Pure or a Bardolino Chiaretto that sits in the same elegant, pale, dry territory but gives them something new to try. If they're a Chablis drinker, search that and you'll find a Muscadet Sur Lie or a well-priced Burgundy white that shares the same mineral, unoaked appeal.
Your Partner: The Fragrance Person
They have a signature scent. Maybe it's Tom Ford Oud Wood, or Sauvage, or something by Maison Margiela. The problem with buying fragrance for someone else is the risk — but if you search what they already wear, the AI narrows it down significantly. Search "Oud Wood" and you'll find the REPLICA Jazz Club by Maison Margiela keeps coming up as a favourite — woody, smoky, confident without being heavy. Or search "Sauvage" and find YSL La Nuit de L'Homme in a similar territory: cool, clean, and a little warmer in the dry-down.
The Colleague Gift: Safe but Not Boring
This is where people default to a bottle of supermarket wine or a box of Thorntons and call it done. Instead: search "craft chocolate" or "speciality coffee" and let the AI find something from a proper artisan brand — the kind of thing from Fortnum & Mason or Ocado that looks considered, tastes genuinely good, and costs roughly the same as that sad M&S biscuit tin.
How to Build a Proper Gift Profile (and Actually Use It)
The most useful thing you can do right now is spend ten minutes building a rough profile for the people you buy for most. For each person, note:
- One product they already buy loyally — their whisky, their perfume, their wine, their candle
- Their general taste direction — rich and indulgent, light and fresh, bold and unusual, understated and classic
- Their budget sensitivity — are they a "good bottle of wine" person or a "really good bottle of wine" person
- What they never buy themselves but would genuinely use — this is usually the sweet spot for a gift
Then, when the occasion comes — birthday, Christmas, just because — you search that product on More Like This and let the AI do the hard part. You're not starting from scratch. You're starting from something real.
Why This Works Better Than a Gift Guide
Most gift guides are written months in advance, filled with products that happen to have good PR, and organised by budget brackets that rarely match how anyone actually thinks. More Like This searches live inventory. That means what you see is actually available. It means the recommendations are based on the product you searched, not on what a brand paid to promote. And it means the Wildcard option — the unexpected one — is genuinely unexpected, not just a different colourway of the same thing.
If you've ever spent forty-five minutes on a retailer website, tab after tab, trying to find something that feels right for someone specific, this is built for that exact moment.
Start with What They Love
The best gift you can give anyone is evidence that you paid attention. More Like This just makes that a lot easier to act on. Search a product they already love, and find the three things they'd love next.
Try More Like This — type in something they love, and see what comes up. It takes about thirty seconds and it's free.