Uber Eats has launched an AI assistant to help create shopping carts

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

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

Customers can enter a list or upload a photo of one, and the Cart Assistant automatically adds the desired items to their cart. This includes pictures of handwritten menus or photos of recipes and their ingredients. Users can customize the basket by exchanging items they like or adding other items from the store.

Uber Eats says the Car Assistant uses past orders to add items you’re used to — like regular milk or your favorite oatmeal — to personalize the experience.

“Users are telling us they want a faster shopping experience, and we know how valuable your time is,” Uber CTO Praveen Neppalli Naga said in a statement. “Cart Assistant helps you go from idea to payment in seconds.”

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

Last year, all of them Uber Eats is a DoorDash partner integrated with ChatGPT control of food ordering. With Uber Eats, US users can search for local restaurants and menus in ChatGPT, then complete the purchase in the Uber Eats app. The DoorDash integration allows users to request meal plans and automatically add all the necessary items to their DoorDash cart.

In particular, Bloomberg reported in 2023 that Uber Eats was creating an AI-powered chatbot which should ask users about their budget and preferences, and help them order

Overall, Uber Eats is investing heavily in AI, as well commercial equipment such as AI-generated menu descriptions, additional food images, and summaries of customer reviews.