A new study of European consumers has found the UK is one of the heaviest users of AI when it comes to grocery shopping, despite British shoppers being the most sceptical.

Some 39 per cent of UK consumers responded to the dunnhumby survey that they do not trust AI.

Unsurprisingly, AI-assisted grocery shopping remains primarily a younger consumer behaviour rather than a mass-market habit. Almost a quarter of 18–34-year-olds across Europe have engaged with AI powered tools, with only 4 per cent of those surveyed over the age of 55 saying the same.

Nearly half of consumers aged 55+ trust AI “somewhat”, while only 10 per cent trust it mostly or completely.

The research confirms that price comparison is the most popular use of AI for shoppers (47 per cent). While finding out more about products or ingredients came second with 31 per cent using the technology for this purpose.

Subscribe to Grocery Gazette for free

Sign up here to get the latest grocery and food news each morning

Identifying personalised products was the third most common reason for shoppers to use AI tools like Chat GPT, with 26 per cent of those surveyed using AI for this purpose.

Sandra Stanley, chief data science officer, dunnhumby: “This research shows that the new era of shopping is underway with loyalty needing to be earned both from the customer as well as the AI agent acting on their behalf.

“For retailers, the core fundamentals remain key to not falling behind in this space and that means clean, connected and well governed data, building responsible frameworks and driving AI literacy across the organisation so that teams understand and can act on opportunities.”

dunnhumby stressed that the research looked to provide a snapshot of AI adoption in grocery shopping, with AI being used as an addition to existing web-based search methods rather than as an end-end shopping solution. For the majority of shoppers, AI is not yet part of the shopping routine, highlighting the need to develop everyday solutions that fit into the shopper experience.