Instacart Launches Clementine AI Assistant for Grocery Shopping

Instacart has launched Clementine, a new AI-powered grocery shopping assistant that can turn conversations, recipes and shopping lists into ready-to-buy carts.

The assistant is designed to help users decide what to eat, plan grocery purchases and manage spending. Shoppers can request budget-friendly lunches for children, plan high-protein dinners for two, or add frequently purchased items to a cart.

Clementine combines meal planning and shopping

Instacart says Clementine can create personalised recipes or surface recipes from trusted publishers. Its recommendations can also account for household preferences and dietary requirements, including gluten-free, vegetarian, nut-free and organic options.

The assistant can highlight relevant deals and promotions while recommending lower-cost alternatives. Users can also upload a photo of a handwritten grocery list or a screenshot of a digital list, which Clementine can convert into items for a shopping cart.

“Every night, millions of families ask the same question: ‘What’s for dinner?’ Not knowing the answer, let alone what to shop for, is one of the most universal human experiences, and a problem Instacart is built to solve,” Instacart CEO Chris Rogers said in an emailed press release.

Rogers said the company is applying knowledge developed from nearly 15 years of observing how families shop and eat to Clementine.

Delivery apps expand their use of AI

Instacart is not the only grocery delivery platform adding conversational AI to the shopping process. Uber Eats and DoorDash have introduced similar assistants that can convert natural-language requests and grocery lists into personalised carts.

The tools extend delivery apps beyond product search and ordering by bringing meal planning and purchase decisions into the same service. For users, that means tasks such as deciding what to cook, identifying ingredients and building a cart can increasingly happen within a single shopping workflow.

Clementine is now available to Instacart users in the United States and Canada.