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Ask Instacart employs an AI-powered search tool to answer common food questions

By Cristine Struble

Instacart, the leading grocery technology company in North America, today launched Ask Instacart, a first-of-its-kind AI-powered search tool designed to assist with customers’ grocery shopping questions. By leveraging the language understanding capabilities of OpenAI's ChatGPT API and Instacart’s own AI models and unique catalog data that spans more than a billion items across more than 80,000 retail partner locations, Ask Instacart can help tackle the age-old daily question: 'What's for dinner?. photo provided by Instacart
Instacart, the leading grocery technology company in North America, today launched Ask Instacart, a first-of-its-kind AI-powered search tool designed to assist with customers’ grocery shopping questions. By leveraging the language understanding capabilities of OpenAI's ChatGPT API and Instacart’s own AI models and unique catalog data that spans more than a billion items across more than 80,000 retail partner locations, Ask Instacart can help tackle the age-old daily question: 'What's for dinner?. photo provided by Instacart /
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The dreaded question, “what’s for dinner” can make people shake their heads. While some home cooks might be a genius the kitchen, the food inspiration might be lacking. If the refrigerator is empty and the pantry is bare, takeout does not necessarily have to be the solution. With Ask Instacart, the answer is waiting to be discovered.

Many people have turned to Instacart for their shopping convenience. Whether it is filling the cart while watching a favorite food television show or remembering the last-minute milk purchase, Instacart has become the go-to for any and every shopping need.

While there are many occasions where people know exactly what they want or need, other times people want some inspiration or guidance. The Ask Instacart can be that solution. Whether it is getting people out of that Taco Tuesday rut or introducing them to a new flavor, a simple question can produce a flavorful answer.

According to JJ Zhuang, Chief Architect at Instacart, “Ask Instacart can help customers answer all of their food questions and deliver the ingredients for the perfect meal in as fast as an hour. By supercharging Instacart search with generative AI we can create a truly inspiring experience that unlocks even more opportunities to engage and help customers as they shop online from their favorite retailers.”

The Ask Instacart option allows customers to get valuable information from the service. Beyond the “what’s for dinner” suggestions, the technology looks to explain which ingredients can be swapped, how certain flavors pair together, or even certain food substitutions. Whether the shopper needs a dairy free alternative for a special guest or wants to understand which vegetable pairs with that lamb dish, the answers are at their fingertips.

Give that this platform can learn, it will be interesting to see how the Ask Instacart adapts to the consumer. If it can learn favorite foods or orders, it might provide more targeted answers for the individual. For example, if a person primarily orders vegetarian forward options, it should not recommend a pork roast for dinner.

Check out the Ask Instacart option on the app and experience it for yourself. It might have the suggestion that will have everyone hungry for more.

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