UK | Tesco is trialling a new AI assistant built into the Tesco app as part of its long-term plan to use AI to make life a little easier for customers.
Launching as a Beta trial with Tesco colleagues, the AI assistant will initially help customers with meal planning, providing a natural, two-way dialogue to offer inspiration in the form of personalised recipe ideas that also account for different dietary preferences.
Once a customer has found a recipe that fits the kind of meal they had in mind, the AI assistant can help them build their shopping basket within the app, finding suitable products and using insights such as a customer’s previous shopping history and preferences.
By helping customers who may be looking to use up leftover ingredients in the fridge or cupboard, the assistant will offer a personalised experience that saves them money and time, reduces food waste, and takes some of the stress out of mealtime planning.
Built directly into the existing Tesco app, the retailer will invite around 280,000 of its colleagues to road-test the assistant over the coming weeks and use it in their day-to-day lives before it is eventually launched to all customers later this year.
With thousands of stores across the country, few people know British shoppers and communities better than Tesco colleagues.
This Beta trial, which will roll out to UK Tesco colleagues over the coming weeks, is a unique opportunity to draw on the insights and experiences of the largest private-sector workforce in the country to help build a first-class assistant, personalised to the needs of Tesco’s millions of customers.
In the coming weeks, Tesco colleagues will be given opportunities to provide feedback that will play an important role in shaping the AI assistant, identifying features that work best, spotting new opportunities to inspire shoppers, and helping name the assistant.
The retailer will look to develop and enhance the assistant in the future, expanding its functionality so it can help customers with more parts of their day-to-day lives and provide them with a genuinely intelligent, helpful shopping experience.
Tesco’s in-house app, data science and engineering teams have been working with Tomoro AI, a UK-based AI consultancy founded in 2023, in alliance with OpenAI, on the development of the new assistant, with the work taking place under strict secrecy protocols since autumn last year.
Behind the scenes, AI has been supporting Tesco’s operations for years, helping refine processes and improve the overall shopping experience through channels like Clubcard, which rewards customer loyalty and continually increases the personalisation it offers.
The retailer has doubled the size of its technology team over the last five years as it looks to improve the customer experience, and Tesco also recently signed a three-year strategic partnership with European AI start-up, Mistral, to develop new AI capabilities.
