Uber Eats has introduced Cart Assistant, an AI-powered feature designed to help consumers build grocery baskets in seconds using simple text or image prompts. At launch, an initial beta version of Cart Assistant is available at dozens of grocery retailers across the country, including Albertsons, Aldi, CVS, Kroger, Safeway, Sprouts, Walgreens and Wegmans, with more to come. Also on the horizon, Uber Eats plans to add capabilities to this initial beta version, such as full recipe inspiration, meal plans and the ability to ask follow-up questions.
The current version includes smart recommendations, building on shoppers’ past orders to prioritize familiar items such as a go-to milk or favorite oatmeal. Users can prompt Cart Assistant with text or images, such as a screenshot of recipe ingredients or a handwritten grocery list. Shoppers also can simply describe what they want to make, e.g. “pancakes from scratch,” and Cart Assistant will generate a list specifically for it.
Additionally, Cart Assistant incorporates store-level details, automatically taking product availability into account and showing details like item prices and applicable promotions.
“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, CTO at Uber in a statement. “By grounding these features in real user behavior, we can build tools that feel helpful and intuitive. We’re excited to continue developing this approach as we bring more agentic services into the Uber and Uber Eats platforms.”
Advertisement
Delivery Platforms Embrace AI
Like other delivery platforms, Uber Eats has been busily investigating and investing in AI-powered solutions; in October 2025, the company expanded its partnership with OpenAI to bring Uber and Uber Eats apps for consumers to use within the ChatGPT apps.
Competitor Instacart’s AI activities include the March 2025 introduction of Smart Shop, which leverages generative AI to create more personalized grocery shopping and encourage healthier eating. In November 2025 Instacart introduced a customer-facing agentic AI solution for Kroger as it introduced a suite of AI-powered grocery retail tools.
In August 2025 DoorDash deployed AI-powered solutions from Relex to improve operations across its DashMart network of first-party fulfillment centers , and in December 2025 DoorDash enabled key elements of the shopping journey within ChatGPT consumer sessions via a partnership with ChatGPT parent company OpenAI.
