Uber Eats launches AI assistant to help create grocery cart

Uber Eats was announced a new AI feature, “Cart Assistant,” on Wednesday, designed to fill customers’ carts faster and easier. The beta version is now available on the app.​

To use the new chatbot, users search for a grocery store in the Uber Eats app and tap the purple Cart Assistant icon on the store’s page to start shopping.

Customers can enter a list or upload an image as Cart Assistant will automatically add the necessary items to their cart. This includes photos of handwritten lists or screenshots of recipes and their ingredients. Users can then customize the cart by exchanging items for preferred brands or adding more products from the store.​​

Uber Eats notes that Cart Assistant uses previous orders to prioritize familiar items — like regular milk or your favorite oatmeal — to make the experience more personalized.​​

“Users have been telling us they want a faster way to shop, and we know how valuable your time is,” Uber CTO Praveen Neppalli Naga said in a statement. “Cart Assistant helps you get from idea to checkout in seconds.”

Cart Assistant could help Uber Eats better compete with other food and grocery delivery apps that are already integrating or developing AI chatbots. For example, Instacart launched an AI search tool powered by OpenAI’s ChatGPT in 2023 to help customers save time and receive personalized shopping recommendations. DoorDash also reportedly testing an AI chatbot called DashAI in the same year.​​

Last year, both Uber Eats and rival DoorDash integrated with ChatGPT to streamline food ordering. With Uber Eats, US users can browse local restaurants and menus on ChatGPT and then complete their purchase in the Uber Eats app. The DoorDash integration allows users to request meal packages and automatically add all necessary ingredients to their DoorDash cart.

Specifically, Bloomberg reported in 2023 that Uber Eats was developing an AI-powered chatbot that would supposedly ask users about their budget and food preferences and help them place an order.

Overall, Uber Eats is quickly investing in AI, including tools for traders such as AI-generated menu descriptions, enhanced food photos, and customer review summaries.