Grocery shopping app Instacart is using Generative AI and machine learning to understand a user’s preferences. According to the company’s press release, the system, Smart Shop, creates a more “personalized grocery shopping experience.”

Smart Shop From Instacart

Photo: T. Schneider/Shutterstock

Instacart wants Smart Shop to make grocery shopping more intuitive for the user by analyzing habits and dietary preferences. As a result, the app surfaces the most relevant products faster. In addition to the new system, the company also launched AI-powered Health Tags which provide detailed nutritional information. Finally, Instacart added Inspiration Pages. The first Inspiration Page was dedicated to nutrition guidance and diabetes-friendly grocery and recipe recommendations.

“At Instacart, we want to turn the ordinary task of grocery shopping into a delightful, personalized shopping experience that takes the mental load out of finding the exact items that meet your preferences,” said Daniel Danker, Chief Product Officer at Instacart. “By combining our new Smart Shop technology, Health Tags, and Inspiration Pages, we’re not just improving online grocery shopping – we’re reimagining it, making it seamless to go from intention to action.”

He continued, “By customizing your shopping journey to match your personal health goals or fit your dietary restrictions, we can unlock possibilities that weren’t even on the table before.”

AI Features

One of the Smart Shop’s customizable features is that customers can select up to 14 dietary preferences for themselves, others in the house, or their pets. These preferences reportedly enhance the Smart Shop’s personalization capabilities.

Furthermore, the AI-powered Health Tags help shoppers navigate options by extracting key nutritional details using vision-language models. According to Instacart, the AI software provides insights on almost 500,000 items across 100,000+ stores.

By introducing the Inspiration Pages, the app offers nutritional and recipe advice in collaboration with the ADA to assist those managing diabetes, obesity, and other conditions.

“Our collaboration with the American Diabetes Association takes this a step further by turning expert nutrition advice into easy, shoppable solutions through our Inspiration Pages,” said Sarah Mastrorocco, Vice President and General Manager of Instacart Health.