Portland Leather Goods, a Portland-based maker of handbags and leather goods, moved to an AI-assisted platform after its five-person social team struggled with message volume, Business Insider reports. The company had amassed nearly one million followers across Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok and received about 70,000 monthly messages, comments, and mentions, according to MacCoy Merkley, the company’s chief marketing officer. Merkley told Business Insider the team typically took up to nine hours to resolve inquiries and sometimes up to 48 hours. The company began working with the Silicon Valley startup Nectar Social in July 2025 and chose the platform because it consolidated conversations across channels while keeping humans in the loop, per Business Insider. Separately, a Nectar Social press release dated April 8, 2026, announces a strategic data partnership with Reddit that gives Nectar access to Reddit’s Data API.