Uber Eats announced a new AI feature, “Card Assistant,” on Wednesday to help customers fill their grocery carts faster and more efficiently. To use the new chatbot, users have to search for a grocery store in the Uber Eats app, like other delivery apps, and tap the purple cart assistant icon on the store’s page to begin shopping.
Customers can enter a list or upload an image of one, and the Cart assistant will automatically add the necessary items to their basket. This includes screenshots of recipes and their ingredients.
Users can then customise their cart by swapping items from the preferred brands and adding more products from the store.
Uber Eats notes that Cart Assistant uses previous orders to prioritise familiar items — like your usual milk or favorite oatmeal — to make the experience more personalised.
“Users were telling us they wanted a quicker way to shop, and we know how precious your time is,” Uber CTO Praveen Neppalli Naga said in a statement. “Cart Assistant helps you get from idea to checkout in seconds.”
The new cart Assistant added could help Uber Eats compete with other food delivery and grocery apps that already have AI chatbots and are developing more.
Other competitors like InstaCart launched an AI search tool powered by OpenAI’s ChatGPT in 2023 to help customers save time and receive personalised shopping recommendations. Its rival, DoorDash, also tested an AI chatbot called DashAI that same year.
Last year, Uber Eats and its rival DoorDash integrated with AI chatbot ChatGPT to streamline food ordering. With Uber Eats, US customers can easily browse local restaurants and menus in ChatGPT, then complete their purchase in the Uber Eats app.
DoorDash’s integration allows users to request meal plans and have all necessary ingredients automatically added to their DoorDash cart.
In 2023, Bloomberg reported that Uber Eats was developing an AI-powered chatbot that would supposedly ask users about their budget and food choices before placing food orders.
Uber Eats is investing in AI, including tools for merchants such as AI-generated menu descriptions, enhanced food photos, and expanded customer review summaries.
