Uber Eats Bets on AI to Simplify Grocery Shopping with New Cart Assistant If there is one mundane task ripe for an AI upgrade, it is grocery shopping. Uber is making that bet with a new AI-powered feature called Cart Assistant within its Uber Eats app. The tool aims to streamline building a grocery basket by using artificial intelligence to automatically find and add items from a user’s shopping list. To access Cart Assistant, users search for a participating grocery store in the app and tap a new icon at the top of the screen. From there, they can either type out a list manually or simply upload a photo of a handwritten list. The AI will then process the list, fetch the requested items, and place them in the virtual cart. The system can also interpret a screenshot of recipe ingredients. Uber states the AI considers product availability before selecting an item and will display current prices and any active promotions. Users maintain control, able to delete unwanted recommendations or swap them for alternatives. The feature also learns from past purchases, prioritizing familiar items to reduce the need for manual adjustments later. For items forgotten on the original list, users can add them manually. Uber notes the feature is currently in beta and may not perform perfectly. This Cart Assistant launch represents the latest step in Uber Eats’ ongoing integration of artificial intelligence. Last summer, the company rolled out several AI-enhanced features for restaurant orders, including AI-generated food images, AI-written menu descriptions, and AI summaries of customer reviews. The move highlights a growing trend of deploying AI to handle routine consumer tasks, with grocery shopping presenting a significant opportunity due to its repetitive and time-consuming nature. Uber’s approach focuses on reducing the friction of digital grocery ordering, potentially encouraging more frequent use of its platform for these types of essential purchases.
