Tesco will begin rolling out an AI assistant to Clubcard customers this week, following a successful trial involving 280,000 employees. The tool aims to provide a personalised service that saves customers “time, stress and money” and reduces food waste.
How the AI assistant works
The UK’s biggest supermarket began trialling the assistant, which is linked to information gathered through purchases made using the grocer’s Clubcard, in April before starting to expand it out to customers last month.
In April, Tesco said the assistant would initially help customers with meal planning by providing a “natural, two-way dialogue to offer inspiration in the form of personalised recipe ideas”, taking dietary preferences into account. Customers are able to search for meals based around cost or type of cuisine, or both, and create a dish by listing items they already have at home that they would like to use up.
Personalised advice and development
Tesco said the assistant’s use of Clubcard information would mean it would be able to advise customers on what they may already have in their cupboard or fridge. The feature would be built into the Tesco app as part of a long-term plan to expand its functionality “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 said its in-house teams had been working with Tomoro AI - a UK-based AI consultancy founded in 2023, in alliance with OpenAI – on the development of the new assistant, with the work taking place under “strict secrecy protocols” since autumn last year.
AI behind the scenes
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 retailer has doubled the size of its technology team over the last five years and has signed a three-year strategic partnership with European AI start-up Mistral to develop new AI capabilities. Behind the scenes, AI has been supporting Tesco’s operations for years, helping refine processes and improve the overall shopping experience through channels like its Clubcard, which rewards customer loyalty and continually increases the personalisation it offers.
