Instacart wants to boost order sizes, with help from an AI-powered chatbot

It won’t be long before Instacart shoppers find themselves in a conversation with an artificially intelligent chatbot that has answers to questions about everything from the service itself to what they should feed their children for breakfast.  

That’s because the grocery delivery service is working with the company OpenAI, developer of the increasingly ubiquitous ChatGPT, to apply the technology to its grocery delivery app. 

Instacart has not yet set a date for the release of its AI-powered “Ask Instacart” service, but the company has said it expects the new technology to come out sometime later this year. 

“Grocery shopping can require a big mental load, with a lot of factors at play, like budget, health and nutrition, personal tastes, seasonality, culinary skills, prep time and recipe inspiration,” said JJ Zhuang, chief architect at Instacart, in a statement. “What if AI could take on that mental load, and we could help the household leaders who are commonly responsible for grocery shopping, meal planning and putting food on the table—and actually make grocery shopping truly fun? Instacart’s AI system when integrated with OpenAI’s ChatGPT will enable us to do exactly that, and we’re thrilled to start experimenting with what’s possible in the Instacart app.” 

In an email from Instacart to WGB, the company said the new service will enable shoppers to get “inspirational, shoppable answers” from the chatbot. Instacart says the ChatGPT service will work in conjunction with the company’s own artificial intelligence and product data, as well as from the grocer’s retail partners at its 80,000-plus store locations.  

Not only will shoppers be able to learn about store products and locations, but the service will enable shoppers to ask specific questions such as: What should I make my family for breakfast? What are healthy alternatives to my favorite recipes? Or, How can I make great tacos?

In a video demonstration of the forthcoming app released by Instacart, the user simply types in the word "lunch," which automatically generates options to make the search more specific, including: “What should I have for lunch?”, “What are some affordable lunch options?” and “What’s a healthy lunch for my kids?” After clicking on the healthy lunch for kids option, the app offers up choices such as veggie hummus wraps, meat and cheese skewers and peanut butter and banana sandwiches. It also displays the necessary products and makes them easy to add to a shopper's Instacart order.

Instacart’s promotional video also includes a “More Ideas” section to the question, suggesting that the shopper consider “healthy snacks for kids”, “kid-friendly meals with lots of vegetables” and “easy options for family dinner.”