Uber Eats Introduces AI Cart Assistant for Grocery Orders

Uber Eats has launched 'Cart Assistant,' an artificial intelligence-powered feature aimed at simplifying the grocery shopping experience for its customers. Announced on Wednesday, Cart Assistant is now in beta, available through the company's app, and seeks to expedite how users build their grocery carts.

The new tool is accessible when users navigate to a grocery store within the Uber Eats app, signaled by a prominent purple Cart Assistant icon. Once activated, the assistant enables shoppers to upload either a typed grocery list or an image—supporting handwritten notes and screenshots of recipes. The technology employs optical character recognition (OCR), which allows it to extract readable product names from both handwritten and printed sources.

After processing the input, Cart Assistant automatically fills the user's basket with recognized products. Users retain the flexibility to replace items with preferred brands, adjust quantities, and add or remove products before finishing their purchase.

Key to the tool’s design is personalization. The assistant references a customer's historical orders, prioritizing frequently purchased items such as a favorite milk brand or preferred oatmeal. Products most often bought by a customer are placed higher in the order suggestion list, aiming to speed up routine reorders and enhance convenience.

Uber CTO Praveen Neppalli Naga noted that the company developed this feature in response to user requests for more efficient shopping. According to Naga, Cart Assistant is designed to help move customers from the idea stage to checkout in seconds, underscoring speed as a principal innovation goal.

Competing food delivery and grocery platforms have recently introduced comparable AI-driven features. Instacart, for example, rolled out an AI search function powered by OpenAI's ChatGPT in 2023, offering tailored product recommendations and reducing time spent searching. DoorDash also experimented with its own AI chatbot, DashAI, to simplify order creation via conversational prompts.

Both Uber Eats and DoorDash integrated ChatGPT into their interfaces last year, though Uber Eats limits the conversational, AI-driven ordering to its U.S. users. In this implementation, users can browse menus or generate meal ideas using ChatGPT before finalizing purchases within the Uber Eats app. DoorDash’s similar approach allows customers to create meal plans and automatically populate their carts with all required ingredients, further reducing manual entry.

AI technologies such as chatbots and optical character recognition are increasingly shaping the online grocery shopping landscape, with leading delivery platforms racing to deliver faster and more customized experiences. For now, Uber Eats’ Cart Assistant is set to provide a more tailored, efficient ordering process, in line with industry trends towards automation and digital personalisation.

Source: dataconomy.com