Tesco is rolling out a new AI-powered meal planning assistant to its Clubcard customers this week, following a successful pilot involving 280,000 staff members. The supermarket giant says the feature will save shoppers “time, stress and money” while cutting down on food waste.
How the assistant works
The assistant draws on data collected through Clubcard purchases to offer a tailored service. It supports customers with meal planning through a “natural, two-way dialogue to offer inspiration in the form of personalised recipe ideas”, while accounting for dietary requirements.
Shoppers can search for meals based on budget or culinary style, or a combination of both, and construct a dish by listing ingredients they already have at home that need using up. Tesco explained that the assistant's integration with Clubcard data would enable it to suggest what customers might already have in their cupboards or fridges.
Rollout and development
The trial began in April, before being gradually extended to customers last month. Tesco chief executive Ken Murphy said: “We are also making strong progress on AI-enabled personalisation, extending Your Clubcard Prices and beginning the customer rollout of our meal planning assistant, helping customers manage their busy lives.”
The functionality will be integrated into the Tesco app as part of an extended strategy to broaden its capabilities “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 revealed that its internal teams had been collaborating with Tomoro AI, a British AI consultancy established in 2023. They are working alongside OpenAI on creating the new assistant, with development conducted under “strict secrecy protocols” since last autumn.
AI behind the scenes
The supermarket giant noted that AI had been operating “behind the scenes” within its systems, including its Clubcard loyalty scheme, “for years” to “improve the overall shopping experience”. This would incentivise customer loyalty while consistently advancing the personalisation it delivers.
The grocer has expanded its technology workforce twofold over the past five years and has entered into a three-year strategic alliance with European AI start-up Mistral to build new AI functionalities.
