How ChatGPT Can Take E-Grocery Personal Shopping Assistants to the Next Level

Ever visited a grocery store, activated your mobile app, and received personalized item suggestions with prices and additional insights? Shoppers at supermarket chain Kroger have.

Store sensors and artificial intelligence (AI) technology are enabling customized mid-purchase product recommendations to be expected by consumers. The question on small and mid-to-large store owners' minds now is how do they close the gap in personalization capabilities between supermarket giants Amazon.com, Walmart, and Kroger with theirs.

ChatGPT, OpenAI’s AI-powered chatbot, has made considerable strides in innovation, productivity and disruption across industries not limited to retail. The natural language processing algorithm is on everyone's tongues for its ability to respond to prompts and provide access to data without the user having prior analytics or coding experience. While the tool isn’t perfect, some helpful customer-facing applications are already being investigated.

Let’s take a look at the potential of ChatGPT’s AI and what grocers can do to prepare for its arrival.

AI for the Ultimate Personal E-Grocery Shopping Assistant

A lot of thought goes into a busy parent’s weekly shopping basket, including budget, nutrition, kids’ unique taste buds, cooking simplicity, and prep time, all dampening the room for recipe inspiration. Amazon and Instacart are already exploring the uses of ChatGPT in their e-grocery shopping processes — and something as simple as healthy meal recommendations is a strong start.

Stores leverage OpenAI’s technology to provide a virtual shopping assistant. Customers can ask the chatbot questions as broad as “lunch ideas” to as narrow as “cheap, healthy risotto recipes for four.” The tool responds by generating lists of ingredients based on the customer’s request, as well as suggesting relevant questions to further narrow down their search.

Convenience and personalization were among the top five qualities shoppers looked for in 2022. Ideally, they wanted to buy all their goods in one place (up 44 percent since 2021), and from high-protein to low-sugar, they've been getting increasingly selective about the healthiness of their purchases. For this reason, store-owned chatbots that can push out recipe ideas unique to the customer, with all items available in their stores, will be a game-changer for the industry.

How Can Grocery Stores Prepare for the Chatbot Takeover?

While tools such as ChatGPT support nonanalytical users to digest the data, for them to work requires quality and complete data. With data ownership and visibility into online and offline sales, grocers will be in a good position to implement AI-powered tools to support customer requests and enrich their shopping experience.

Grocers' ability to easily integrate chatbot features into their e-commerce site or customer-facing app and support personalization strategies will depend on their tech stack. That’s why many use industry-specific platforms  which support grocers to have control over their customer-facing solutions with full access to their data.

The lack of in-store inventory visibility for grocers using nonintegrated third-party applications can damage both the e-commerce and physical store shopping experience. Grocers must take ownership of their e-commerce presence and inventory analytics to ensure they only promote available products and use their platform’s rich data to optimize the experience for shoppers.

AI developments like ChatGPT will significantly impact how shoppers plan their meals and select goods, but the tool’s success will depend on grocers' ability to keep track of stock levels alongside. The future of personalized promotions is already here, and grocers of every size will need to get to grips with inventory management to survive.

Bagrat Safaryan is the co-founder and CEO of Local Express, an end-to-end food e-commerce platform.