Survey: ChatGPT has grocers talking about AI

Artificial intelligence is quickly becoming a part of modern life, and the rapidly growing popularity of ChatGPT and other AI services is gaining the attention of grocers across the country, according to a Grocery Doppio report released Wednesday 

The February State of Digital Grocery Performance Scorecard reveals that more than two-thirds (67%) of grocers say they’ve discussed ChatGPT—a new artificial intelligence chatbot service developed by the company OpenAI—in senior-level meetings over the past year, and 82% say AI will be necessary to compete in the future. Thirteen percent of grocers surveyed said they plan to spend non-budgeted funds developing AI solutions in 2023.  

Eighty-six percent of grocers surveyed think AI will impact inventory forecasting and optimization in the future. Supply chain operations was the second-biggest area grocers believe will be impacted by AI, at 82%. Pricing and promotions came in third, at 72%.  

Eight-two percent of grocers surveyed believe chatbots like ChatGPT will also improve customer service, followed by site search and product recommendations at 73%. Another 71% believe AI will be used as a tool for store associates.  

More than half (59%) said they will test an AI-based solution in their store in 2023. This experimentation is already taking place in stores across the nation, including areas such as self-service checkouts and digital circulars. Instacart announced earlier this month that it plans to release its own AI chatbot later this year, built using the ChatGPT technology.  

The 74th annual The Food Retailing Industry Speaks report, released in September, shows that nearly a third (31%) of all food retailers already are using AI in their operations “and the biggest applications include leveraging customer data and decision-making on pricing and promotion,” the study noted. That statistic more than doubles for suppliers, 67% of whom said they are already using AI in their operations, according to the FMI report. 

The Grocery Doppio report also explores trends in digital sales, showing a slight year-over-year increase of 2.1% in February, inching upward to $9.8 billion. Grocery websites experienced a substantial increase in sales for the year, jumping to $7.4 billion from the February 2022 high of $6.1 billion. Grocery app sales dipped, though, to $0.6 billion from $0.8 billion the previous year. Third-party app sales dropped substantially over the course of the year, declining to $1.8 billion from $2.7 billion in 2022.