Albertsons Companies launched a Safeway plugin within ChatGPT, allowing shoppers to build grocery baskets and search for products using natural-language prompts.

The integration enabled customers to find products, create meal plans, identify current promotions and turn recipes or photos into shopping lists without leaving the AI platform.

Users could also ask ChatGPT to reorder regular purchases or find ingredients for a particular recipe, with recommendations tailored to their preferred Safeway store.

Customers could connect their Safeway account through ChatGPT’s plugin directory before tagging @Safeway within a conversation to access the service.

The tool then used Safeway inventory and pricing information to build a suggested basket based on the shopper’s request.

Customers remained able to review, compare, add or remove products before being redirected to Safeway’s website or mobile app to complete payment.

The launch formed part of Albertsons’ wider investment in AI-powered grocery shopping, following the introduction of its own shopping assistant and Ask AI tools.

Albertsons Companies senior vice president of digital customer experience Jill Pavlovich said: “Research tells us that consumers are increasingly interested in using AI to help with grocery shopping.

“By enabling our plugin in ChatGPT, we are making grocery shopping as simple as having a conversation by meeting our customers when and how they choose to shop.”

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