US retail chain Albertsons has launched an AI shopping assistant to create a web browser experience that makes grocery shopping faster, smarter and more personalised.

As the industry leans into agentic commerce, the Albertsons AI shopping assistant moves beyond search to execute complex end-to-end grocery tasks helping customers complete shopping, from recipe to cart, in minutes.

Building on the success of the company’s Ask AI tool introduced earlier this year, the agentic shopping assistant is a customer-friendly conversational experience powered by many collaborative agents, now available on all Albertsons banner web sites as Albertsons AI, Safeway AI, Vons AI, Jewel-Osco AI and more.

“Our goal at Albertsons is to make our customers’ lives easier and, by implementing AI-powered features across the customer journey from discovery to purchase, we are delivering an experience that’s faster, easier and more enjoyable,” said Jill Pavlovich, senior vice president at Albertsons. “We are laser-focused on using AI as part of our strategy to meet customers when and how they choose to shop, ultimately driving customer growth and engagement through digital connection. The Albertsons AI shopping assistant is an exciting step in this journey, with much more innovation to come.”

Powered by OpenAI models, the Albertsons AI shopping assistant (www.youtube.com/watch?v=e6qgbU6XIDw) aims to reduce grocery shopping time from an average of 46 minutes to as little as four minutes by helping customers plan meals, restock essentials, discover new products and shop smarter. The assistant can be accessed on banner web browsers in the Meals Hub and exemplifies agentic commerce, meaning it doesn’t just answer questions, it actively completes shopping tasks for customers, such as:

• Rapid restock: Quickly reorder weekly essentials and frequent purchases.
• Plan meals: Generate a practical weekly meal plan and shopping list with de-duplicated ingredients added to cart.
• Shop lists: Type or upload an image of a written grocery list, and the assistant will find personalised products for everything on the list.
• Fridge cleaner: Discover recipes using what’s already in the fridge and pantry, saving money and reducing food waste.
• Shop recipe: Instantly import an online recipe or image and add ingredients to cart.
• Event-ready: Choose a theme, or let the assistant use the next upcoming holiday, and see curated product ideas with offers.

“With the Albertsons AI shopping assistant, we can understand our customers’ needs on a deeper level, allowing us to serve them in the best way possible,” said Pavlovich. “Our current meal-planning capabilities are exceptional and now, through dynamic two-way conversations with our shoppers, they can give us further context such as the customer is cooking a meal for six people but wants leftovers and one person is a vegetarian. We can provide tailored recommendations in the moment with all of these considerations and enhance future interactions with personalised product and recipe recommendations featuring our latest deals and coupons.”

Expanding into the Albertsons banner mobile apps in early 2026, the Albertsons AI shopping assistant will launch additional agentic commerce capabilities including budget optimisation, in-store aisle location to find a specific product, and voice integration. Additionally, the assistant’s multi‑agent architecture sets the stage for compatibility with off‑platform agents, opening doors for future integrations with experiences such as apps in the chat feature.

To experience Albertsons AI, visit albertsons.com/assistant.

Albertsons (www.albertsonscompanies.com) is a food and drug retailer in the USA operating 2257 retail stores with 1720 in-store pharmacies, 405 associated fuel centres, 22 dedicated distribution centres and 19 manufacturing facilities. The company operates stores across 35 states and the district of Columbia under 22 banners including Albertsons, Safeway, Vons, Jewel-Osco, Shaw’s, Acme, Tom Thumb, Randalls, United Supermarkets, Pavilions, Star Market, Haggen, Carrs, Kings Food Markets and Balducci’s Food Lovers Market.