Albertsons rolls out Agentic AI shopping assistant
Albertsons Companies Inc. wants to cut the time it takes to shop for groceries down to as little as four minutes.
The grocery giant is releasing a new agentic AI-based shopping assistant based on models from research and deployment company Open AI. Customers can gain access to the assistant on Albertsons banner web browsers in the company’s online meals hub.
Beyond answering questions, the assistant can complete shopping tasks for customers, such as reordering weekly and frequent purchases, generating a weekly meal plan and shopping list with de-duplicated ingredients added to the cart, finding personalized products for everything on a typed or uploaded written grocery list, creating recipes using what a customer has in their fridge and pantry, instantly importing an online recipe or image and adding the ingredients to the cart, and creating curated product ideas with offers based on themes or upcoming holidays.
Albertsons is building on its Ask AI shopping assistant, which includes a Google Cloud Conversational Commerce agent and was released earlier this year. The company says it aims to reduce grocery shopping time from an average of 46 minutes to as little as four minutes.
[READ MORE: Albertsons debuts new Google agentic AI chatbot]
The agentic shopping assistant is now available on all Albertsons banner websites and is scheduled to expand into the Albertsons banner mobile apps in early 2026. The grocer also intends to launch additional agentic commerce capabilities for the assistant including budget optimization, in-store aisle location to find a specific product, and voice integration.
In addition, Albertsons says the assistant’s multi‑agent architecture sets the stage for compatibility with off‑platform agents and future integrations with experiences like apps in the chat feature.
"Our goal at Albertsons Companies is to make our customers’ lives easier, and by implementing AI-powered features across the customer journey from discovery to purchase, we are delivering an experience that’s faster, easier and more enjoyable," said Jill Pavlovich, senior VP, digital customer experience, Albertsons Companies. "We are laser-focused on using AI as part of our strategy to meet customers when and how they choose to shop, ultimately driving customer growth and engagement through digital connection. The Albertsons AI shopping assistant is an exciting step in this journey, with much more innovation to come."
As of Sept. 6, 2025, Albertsons Companies operated 2,257 retail stores with 1,720 in-store pharmacies, 405 associated fuel centers, 22 dedicated distribution centers and 19 manufacturing facilities. The company operates stores across 35 states and the District of Columbia under 22 banners including Albertsons, Safeway, Vons, Jewel-Osco, Shaw's, ACME, Tom Thumb, Randalls, United Supermarkets, Pavilions, Star Market, Haggen, Carrs, Kings Food Markets and Balducci's Food Lovers Market.
