Etsy continues to move full steam ahead integrating AI into various parts of the marketplace with a new writing assistant to help sellers craft messages to buyers, but sellers have been pushing back on the increasing use of AI, wondering how it fits with Etsy’s suppose purpose to “keep commerce human.”
The company hoped to assuage some of those concerns with a new post to their Seller Handbook today titled: How Etsy Uses AI to Support Sellers.
At Etsy, we know that your shop is more than just a business—it’s a reflection of your creativity, skill, and personal story. That’s why our approach to AI is grounded in a simple belief: technology should empower creative entrepreneurs, not replace them.
We’ve heard from many of you that you’re open to using AI powered tools, as long as they respect your voice, your craft, and your control. Our AI tools are built with exactly that in mind.
Whether it’s helping you respond to buyers more quickly, improving how shoppers discover your items, or reducing repetitive work, Etsy’s AI based tools are designed to support you, so you can focus on doing what you love.
The update goes to great pains to highlight that using Etsy’s AI tools is optional for sellers, saying the tools are designed to give sellers more control and help them save time.
First, the articles highlights the new listing title optimization tool that promises to help sellers create titles that will supposedly perform better in search.
Etsy Gives Guidance On Listing Best Practices, Nudges Sellers To Use New AI Tool To Optimize Titles
Etsy posts updated guidance for listing best practices, nudging sellers to use new AI tool to help optimize item titles.
We’re rolling out a new optional tool that uses our latest guidance to suggest clear, easy-to-read listing titles that help buyers quickly understand what you’re selling and also perform well in search. If you have eligible listings in English that could benefit from an update, you’ll see the tool in your Search Visibility dashboard.
This bulk edit tool reviews your existing title, tags, attributes, descriptions, first photo, and even reviews to recommend titles that can build buyer confidence when browsing and deciding what to buy. You can quickly update one or many listings at once—accepting suggestions as-is or customizing them to match your shop’s voice, with real-time feedback to guide your edits.
But sellers who have tested out the new tool are warning others that Etsy’s advice may actually hurt more than help when it comes to search visibility.
Etsy went on to highlight an AI writing assistant they’ve been beta testing with select English-speaking U.S. sellers since early August, providing quick responses to answer buyer messages.
The Writing Assistant is an optional, AI-powered tool that helps you save time drafting messages to buyers. It uses relevant information from your shop—like item descriptions and similar messages you’ve sent in the past—to craft responses that stay true to your unique voice.
Whether you need a little extra help editing your writing or just want to get some time back in your day, the writing assistant is here to help you respond to buyer questions faster, without losing the human touch. You’re always in control: edit, personalize, or start from scratch.
Quick responses matter—our data shows that sellers who reply to buyer messages sent before a purchase in less than two days have a 27% higher conversion rate on average.*
The fact that sellers have options to tweak the AI message output by modifying the tone is interesting and puts Etsy well ahead of rival marketplace eBay, which also announced a similar feature last month but is lacking that customization feature.
That being said, privacy-conscious users may find it disconcerting that one way Etsy’s AI works to write in the seller’s own tone/voice is by using previous messaging interactions with other buyers in other conversations, which could raise concerns about how the AI models are trained.
Q: Is this meant to replace my own written messages?
A: Not at all. When we set out to create the writing assistant, we didn’t want to make something that would replace the real human connection between you and your buyers. Rather, we wanted to create a tool that would allow you to provide that human connection without having to write something from scratch during times of higher volume or other competing priorities.
All generated responses are in your own voice because they’re based on language that you’ve already written yourself in item descriptions and past responses.
Q: What message information does the writing assistant use to generate its responses?
A: The writing assistant uses your relevant past messages. That includes:
Messages within the current conversation
Messages from past customers’ conversations
That definitely sounds like an expansion of the work Etsy engineers have been doing to explore how to turn generic LLMs into highly specific AI answer engines – with a little help from employee handbooks and the Etsy seller community forum.
Etsy Explores How To Turn LLMs Into Specific AI Answer Engines Using Employee & Community Forum Input
Etsy explores using context engineering to turn LLMs into highly specific AI answer engines – with help from employee handbooks & seller community forums.
Next, Etsy discussed some of the ways they use AI behind the scenes to enhance the marketplace with search and image matching, review summaries, and estimated delivery dates.
Etsy also uses AI behind the scenes to enhance the marketplace—helping buyers discover your shop and make confident purchase decisions. These tools work within Etsy’s search, recommendations, and shopping features to connect the right buyers with the right items at the right time.
Search & image matching: Etsy’s AI based tools help match your items to the right buyers, through image-based searches and smarter ranking.
Review feature tags: Buyers can now see quick, AI-powered highlights from your reviews—making it easier for them to spot what others loved about your item, decide faster, and feel confident in their purchase. These highlights surface popular themes and sentiments from real reviews, like “Fast shipping,” “Gift-worthy” or “Very well made.” We’ve seen that buyers respond positively to these insights, which can help strengthen trust in your shop and drive sales.
Estimated delivery dates: In addition to the information you already provide—like processing times and shipping services—we use your shipping history and carrier data, such as recent transit times, to calculate estimated delivery dates. These AI-powered estimates give buyers a clearer sense of when their order will arrive, improving transparency and helping build trust at checkout.
But users who have encountered AI across various places on Etsy say reliability is still a huge issue – including when AI powered search displays results which may be potentially harmful or even deadly for consumers.
Etsy’s AI-Powered Search: Who’s Responsible When LLM Results Pose Potential Harm To Consumers?
What happens when Etsy’s AI-powered search returns irrelevant & potentially harmful results, with sellers stuck in the middle?
And sellers still worry about how AI generated alt text and review summaries can lead to negative buyer experiences which result in bad reviews and/or increased returns.
Etsy Touts Shop Manager Improvements ; Sellers Worry About AI Review Summaries & Alt Text
Etsy announces Spring updates to streamline & improve Shop Manager, but sellers worry AI review summaries & alt text may harm their businesses.
Finally, Etsy closes out with a pledge to put transparency, trust, and seller choice first when it comes to launching new AI tools.
We believe responsible AI starts with transparency, trust, and seller choice. That’s why we’ve established a set of principles to help guide our approach to leveraging AI tools across Etsy—with the needs of your business always in mind.
Here’s what that means for you:
You stay in control: AI powered seller tools are optional, and always give you a chance to review, edit, and approve.
We build with purpose, not just progress: Innovation for innovation’s sake has never been—and will never be—the goal. We thoughtfully consider how every new technology can improve and humanize the Etsy experience for our community.
We listen and iterate: These tools are in early stages—and your feedback will help shape what comes next.
That echos promises made in the company’s recently published statement of AI Principles for Keeping Human Connection At The Center Of Innovation – which ironically reads like it may have been written entirely by AI to ensure minimum viable compliance box checking while completely lacking the human connection Etsy says they are committed to keeping as their supposed guiding light.
Etsy Publishes AI Principles For Keeping Human Connection At Center Of Innovation
Etsy publishes statement of AI Principles for Keeping Human Connection At The Center Of Innovation with “human-first, AI-enabled” approach.
Etsy is looking for feedback on the subject of how they are using AI to support sellers, providing a survey link at the end of this Seller Handbook article.
And I’d love to know what you think too – let us know in the comments below or contact VAR!