Uber Eats launches Cart Assistant to build grocery carts from photos and text in seconds

Uber Eats launches AI assistant to help with grocery cart creation | TechCrunch

Uber Eats announced a new AI feature, "Cart Assistant," on Wednesday designed to fill customers' grocery carts faster and easier. The beta version is now available in the app. To use the new chatbot, users search for a grocery store in the Uber Eats app and tap the purple Cart Assistant icon on the store's page to begin shopping. Customers can enter a list or upload an image of one, and Cart Assistant will automatically add the necessary items to their basket. This includes photos of handwritten lists or screenshots of recipes and their ingredients. Users can then customize the basket by swapping items for preferred brands or adding more products from the store. Uber Eats notes that Cart Assistant uses previous orders to prioritize familiar items -- like your usual milk or favorite oatmeal -- to make the experience more personalized. "Users were telling us they wanted a quicker way to shop, and we know how precious your time is," Uber CTO Praveen Neppalli Naga said in a statement. "Cart Assistant helps you get from idea to checkout in seconds." Cart Assistant could help Uber Eats better compete with other food delivery and grocery apps that are already integrating or developing AI chatbots. For example, Instacart launched an AI search tool powered by OpenAI's ChatGPT in 2023 to help customers save time and receive personalized shopping recommendations. DoorDash was also reportedly testing an AI chatbot called DashAI that same year. Last year, both Uber Eats and rival DoorDash integrated with ChatGPT to streamline food ordering. With Uber Eats, U.S. users can browse local restaurants and menus in ChatGPT, then complete their purchase in the Uber Eats app. DoorDash's integration allows users to request meal plans and automatically add all necessary ingredients to their DoorDash cart. Notably, Bloomberg reported in 2023 that Uber Eats was developing an AI-powered chatbot that would supposedly ask users about their budget and food preferences, and help them place an order. Overall, Uber Eats is rapidly investing in AI, including tools for merchants like AI-generated menu descriptions, enhanced food photos, and customer review summaries.

Uber Eats adds AI assistant to help with grocery shopping

Uber announced a new AI feature called "Cart Assistant" for grocery shopping in its Uber Eats app. The new feature works a couple different ways. You can use text prompts, as you would with any other AI chatbot, to ask it to build a grocery list for you. Or you can upload a picture of your shopping list and ask it to populate your cart with all your favorite items, based on your order history. You can be as generic as you -- "milk, eggs, cereal" -- and the bot will make a list with all your preferred brands. And that's just to start out. Uber says in the coming months, Cart Assistant will add more features, including "full recipe inspiration, meal plans, and the ability to ask follow up questions, and expand to retail partners." But like all chatbots, Uber acknowledges that Cart Assistant may make mistakes, and urges users to double-check and confirm the results before placing any orders. It will also only work at certain grocery stores, with Uber announcing interoperability at launch with Albertsons, Aldi, CVS, Kroger, Safeway, Sprouts, Safeway, Walgreen, and Wegmans. More stores will be added in the future, the company says. Uber has a partnership with OpenAI to integrate Uber Eats into its own suite of apps. But Uber spokesperson Richard Foord declined to say whether the AI company's technology was powering the new chatbot in Uber Eats. "Cart Assistant draws on publicly available LLM models as well as Uber's own AI stack," Foord said in an email. Uber has been racing to add more AI-driven features to its apps, including robotaxis with Waymo and sidewalk delivery robots in several cities. The company also recently revived its AI Labs to collaborate with its partners on building better products using delivery and customer data.

Uber Eats' new Cart Assistant feature is an AI hack for your grocery shopping

If there's any area of your life that you might be willing to introduce more AI into, it's likely something as mundane as grocery shopping. That's what Uber is betting on with its new AI-powered in the Uber Eats app. Cart Assistant lets you "build grocery baskets faster and with less effort" by using AI to automatically fill your basket with items included on your shopping list. To use it, you search for a supported grocery store on the home screen of the app and tap the new Cart Assistant icon that appears at the top of the screen. From there, you can either manually type out a shopping list or upload a photo of a handwritten one, and Cart Assistant will fetch your requested items and add them to your basket. A screenshot of ingredients needed for a recipe will also suffice. Uber says its AI assistant will factor in availability before selecting an item and will also display prices and any available promotions. If you don't want something it recommends, you can delete or swap it for something else. Anything you forgot to add in the original list can be added later, and if you've purchased something in the past, these familiar items will be prioritized so you're less likely to need to make changes. Uber advises users that the new shopping feature is in beta right now, so might not perform perfectly. Cart Assistant is the latest development in the gradual AI-ification of Uber Eats. Last summer, Uber a suite of new features to the app, including AI-enhanced food images, AI menu descriptions and AI summaries or restaurant reviews.

Uber Eats launches AI cart assistant for grocery delivery

An Uber Eats bag in the Brooklyn borough of New York, US, on Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026. Uber Eats is bringing artificial intelligence to your next grocery shopping list. The ride-hailing company said on Wednesday that its food delivery platform is debuting a new AI assistant that lets customers build a shopping cart using text or images, like handwritten grocery lists. Uber is offering the feature through dozens of large retailers, including Safeway, Albertsons and Kroger. The tool accounts for item preferences and store availability and allows users to edit selections, the company said. "Cart Assistant reflects how we think about AI at Uber: starting with real customer needs and building practical solutions within the app," said Praveen Neppalli Naga, Uber's technology, said in a release. "By grounding these features in real user behavior, we can build tools that feel helpful and intuitive."

Uber Eats wants to take grocery shopping off your to-do list

Driving the news: Uber announced the launch of Cart Assistant in the U.S. Wednesday, a beta feature that turns grocery lists and photos -- including handwritten notes or recipe screenshots -- into checkout-ready baskets in a few taps. * The tool launches on iOS this week, with an Android version planned. How it works: Cart Assistant is built directly into the Uber app for Uber Eats grocery shopping. * Users can access the feature by selecting a grocery store in the Uber Eats section of the app and tapping the purple Cart Assistant icon on the store page. * They can type a list or upload an image, and the assistant builds a cart using real-time availability and pricing, along with a user's past orders. What they're saying: Cart Assistant is part of Uber's broader strategy to build AI agents across its platform -- as long as they add clear value for users, Praveen Neppalli Naga, Uber's chief technology officer, told Axios. * "You're in full control of it," Naga said of ordering with the new feature. "Once the cart is built, you can go edit and change the quantity and then replace it with some other brand that you want." * Uber uses public AI models alongside its own technology, Naga said. What we're watching: The shift toward agentic AI is testing how much consumers are willing to hand over.

Uber Eats Cart Assistant lets you shop faster with fewer taps

Uber Eats is testing a new feature that tries to remove the most annoying part of ordering groceries, the endless searching and tapping. It's called Cart Assistant, and it can take a typed list or an image and draft a basket for you inside the app. It's rolling out as a beta. You'll see it as a purple icon on a grocery store storefront after you search for the store from the home screen. Recommended Videos Uber hasn't said exactly which stores and cities get it first, or whether any devices are excluded. It frames the launch as a US release and an early step toward more agent-style help in Uber Eats, where the app handles setup and you handle decisions. It turns notes into a basket Cart Assistant is built for the moment you already know what you need. Paste in your grocery notes, or upload an image, including a photo of handwritten items or a screenshot of recipe ingredients, and the app translates that into shoppable picks. As it drafts the basket, Uber says it checks store availability and surfaces store-level details like pricing and promotions. Then you can edit normally. Swap brands, adjust sizes, remove extras, or keep browsing before checkout. Repeat orders get smarter Uber says Cart Assistant uses your past orders to prioritize familiar staples, which should cut down the time it takes to restock the same basics each week. That's the kind of AI that earns its keep, because it saves effort without changing how you shop. It also hints at where Uber wants to go next. The company positions this beta as part of a broader move toward agentic AI, meaning the app can take on multi-step tasks and hand you a result you can still tweak. Where it helps, and where it may not You'll notice Cart Assistant most on routine grocery runs, when you want a solid first draft and you're happy to fine-tune the last details. It's less about discovery and more about getting the boring part done. There's one catch Uber hasn't addressed yet, image accuracy. How well it handles low light, cramped handwriting, or very specific branded ingredients will decide whether it feels like magic or like extra cleanup. Treat it like a draft, not autopilot. If you spot the purple icon, try a short list first, then scale up once you trust its picks on sizes and brands.

Uber Eats will use your order history to build your next cart

Uber Eats introduced Cart Assistant, an AI-powered feature, on Wednesday, releasing a beta version within its app to accelerate grocery cart assembly for customers. To activate the assistant, users locate a grocery store in the Uber Eats interface and tap the purple Cart Assistant icon displayed on the store's page. The purple icon appears directly beneath the store's header, signaling the assistant's availability for that location. The assistant accepts either a typed list or an uploaded image, supporting photographs of handwritten notes and screenshots of recipes or ingredient lists. The uploaded image undergoes optical character recognition, converting handwritten or printed text into searchable product names. Upon receipt, Cart Assistant automatically populates the basket with identified items, after which users may replace items with preferred brands or add additional products from the store. Quantity adjustments are possible before finalizing the basket. The system references customers' prior orders to prioritize familiar products, such as a regular milk brand or a favorite oatmeal, enhancing personalization. Items that appear most often in a customer's order history receive higher placement in the suggested list. 'Users were telling us they wanted a quicker way to shop, and we know how precious your time is,' Uber CTO Praveen Neppalli Naga said, adding that Cart Assistant moves shoppers from idea to checkout in seconds. The statement emphasizes speed as a primary design goal. Competing platforms have introduced comparable AI tools: Last year both Uber Eats and DoorDash integrated ChatGPT to streamline ordering; Uber Eats enables U.S. users to browse local restaurants and menus within ChatGPT and finalize purchases in the app. The ChatGPT integration is limited to users in the United States, where the conversational interface links to the Uber Eats ordering system. DoorDash's integration allows users to request meal plans and automatically adds required ingredients to the DoorDash cart. The automatic addition covers all ingredients required for the suggested meal plan, eliminating manual entry.

Uber Eats is Trying to Take a Bite Out of Instacart With Its Latest Product Release | The Motley Fool

Uber (UBER 3.39%) Eats on Wednesday launched its new Cart Assistant, a new AI-powered tool to make grocery shopping even easier. Cart Assistant can take a handwritten shopping list or a screenshot of a recipe and automatically put those items in your online shopping basket, showing details like prices and any available promotions. The AI will also build on past orders, reordering brands you have chosen in the past to personalize the process. Instacart already launched its own cart assistant last November, which gives its shoppers tools for personalized meal planning, budgeting, and product recommendations. The use of agentic AI is proliferating across e-commerce, and AI is the latest battlefront between Instacart and Uber Eats. Instacart's gross transaction value is approaching $40 billion a year, and it keeps roughly 10% of that as revenue. Uber's grocery and retail business was on track for a $12 billion gross bookings annual run rate in late 2025. Instacart and Uber aren't just battling each other; retail giants like Walmart and Amazon have invested heavily in online grocery platforms. Grocery is not just a massive category. It's also frequently purchased, and gaining a foothold in grocery can yield gains elsewhere for these companies. The cart assistant isn't a game changer for Uber, but keeping up technologically with Instacart is a smart move. The company has invested heavily in AI, so it's not surprising to see the new feature rolled out. Uber also has an advantage over Instacart because its platform serves so many use cases, including transport, food delivery, and grocery and retail delivery. That unified platform has made membership products like Uber One so successful. Cart assistant is just one of the many ways Uber is using AI, including matching riders with drivers, optimizing routes, and dynamic prices. It's also incorporating generative AI to enhance customer support and improve personalization. Expect the company to continue to invest in AI to better meet customer needs and drive the growth of the business.