Dive Brief:
- Schnuck Markets announced Wednesday that it plans to launch an artificial-intelligence-powered agentic shopping assistant for customers.
- The grocer is rolling out the tool, which will become available on Schnucks’ app and website later this summer, in partnership with VitalityIP, an AI-powered digital nutrition guidance and health data platform.
- Schnucks joins a growing list of grocers, including Albertsons and Kroger, offering up AI-powered shopping assistants that give their customers a more personalized shopping experience.
Dive Insight:
With the AI assistant, Schnucks said that its customers will have access to nutrition guidance, meal ideas and product recommendations that support their lifestyle preferences.
“Our customers are telling us they want trusted guidance with a number of aspects on their visits to Schnucks, whether they’re meal planning, tracking health goals, balancing special dietary needs, stretching their budget, or looking for inspiration in the kitchen,” Schnucks Chief Data and Information Officer Tom Henry said in a statement.
Schnucks noted that the platform will help customers make grocery purchase decisions aligned with health and lifestyle goals such as weight management, healthy aging, recovery and family wellness.
Schnucks said it will be the first retailer to debut the VitalityIP platform. The agent’s “intelligence” is based on more than 6 billion lines of shopping, health and nutrition data, and the technology was co-developed by VitalityIP and Schnucks using customer and store inventory data.
Schnucks noted that it “maintains ownership of the customer relationship, shopper data and brand experience while leveraging VitalityIP's AI and its proprietary database.”
Several other grocery players, including Albertsons, Uber, DoorDash and Associated Wholesale Grocers, have also recently rolled out AI-powered shopping assistants for customers. At the start of this year, Kroger announced a new shopping assistant as part of its expanded partnership with Google Cloud.
