Uber Eats Launches AI Cart Assistant for Groceries

Uber Eats launched a new AI-powered feature called Cart Assistant on Wednesday, introducing a beta version within its mobile app to streamline grocery shopping for users across the United States. The tool aims to quickly populate online shopping carts based on customer inputs, reducing the time needed to assemble orders from local stores.

To access Cart Assistant, users search for a participating grocery store in the Uber Eats app and tap a purple icon that appears on the store's page. Once activated, the assistant accepts either a typed shopping list or an uploaded image, such as a photograph of a handwritten note or a screenshot of a recipe. Using optical character recognition technology, it converts the text into searchable product names and automatically adds matching items to the cart, complete with details like prices and available promotions. Customers can then edit the basket by swapping items for preferred brands, adjusting quantities, or adding extras from the store's inventory before checkout.

The feature draws on users' order history to personalize suggestions, prioritizing familiar products such as a regularly purchased brand of milk or a preferred type of oatmeal....