Grocery brands are launching AI shopping assistants that can turn a photo of a handwritten grocery list into a completed cart in seconds, the assistants can pull double duty as new ad spaces for sponsored products. 

But the retail industry's AI gold rush is running well ahead of shopper enthusiasm, with recent survey data showing most consumers still aren't using, or interested in using, these tools, even as the AI traffic that does show up converts at markedly higher rates than any other channel.

Kroger became the latest grocer to join a recent trend of retailers building or adopting ways to pair consumers with virtual assistants, whether customers want them or not. 

The AI assistant also doubles as a new ad surface. Kroger Precision Marketing is extending its product listing ads to include placements inside the assistant, clearly labeled as sponsored.

How AI assistants accelerate shopping

The move puts Kroger squarely in the same race as Albertsons' AI assistant, which launched in December and is available on all Albertsons properties’ websites.

Albertsons' assistant aims to cut shopping time down to as little as four minutes from a typical 46, by digitizing recipes and lists, building smarter baskets, and holding two-way conversations with shoppers. The retailer says its AI shopping assistant has increased customer basket size by 10% since it was introduced. 

Grocery isn't moving alone. Adoption expectations are running high ahead of the store-by-store rollouts: A 2025 Kearney report found 60% of US consumers expect to use an AI shopping agent this year.

Build your own, or meet shoppers where they are

Kroger and Albertsons represent one approach for proprietary, retailer-owned assistants designed to fence the shopping journey inside their own apps with the flexibility to expand advertising opportunities. 

A parallel track is playing out through retailer-agnostic AI platforms. 

• Instacart's ChatGPT integration spans more than 1,800 retailers. 
• Walmart partnered with OpenAI for ChatGPT Instant Checkout, and separately integrated with Google Gemini in January, so a query like "stain removal" can surface a list of Walmart products directly inside Gemini. 
• Target now has an app inside ChatGPT that lets customers search and purchase with their Target account. 
• DoorDash launched its own ChatGPT app spanning groceries, restaurants, alcohol, and local commerce.

These diverging strategies matter for how retailers think about ad and commerce strategy: Build a proprietary assistant and own the customer relationship end to end, or show up wherever consumers are already asking AI for recommendations, and treat that platform as another distribution channel.

Consumer sentiment lags behind 

Despite the buildout, consumer comfort hasn't caught up to retailer’s AI investments. Some 38.2% of US digital shoppers said they have not used a retail AI chatbot such as Amazon's Alexa for Shopping assistant or Walmart's Sparky and are not interested in doing so, by far the largest single response, according to a June 2026 EMARKETER and Bizrate Insights survey. 

Only 12.3% said they use a chatbot regularly, with another 14.2% having tried one but not sticking with it. 

Roughly half of US digital shoppers (49.8%) have never used a retail AI chatbot and either don't know what one is or aren't interested in trying it out, a more conservative picture than the adoption-forward stats retailers and platforms tend to publicize.

The data behind the AI assistant push

The metrics driving retailer investment come with varying levels of independence, and marketers should weigh them accordingly.

The most broadly sourced numbers come from Adobe Digital Insights, drawing on more than a trillion visits across 130-plus top North American retailers. AI-referred traffic converted 42% better than non-AI traffic, according to an April Adobe report, a reversal from converting 38% worse a year earlier, with AI-referred visitors also generating 37% more revenue per visit and spending 48% longer on-site.

AI-assistant referrals converted at roughly nine times the rate of social-media referrals during the 2025 holiday season, and that AI and agents were tied to about 20% of the season's total through recommendations and higher-intent discovery, according to a January report from Salesforce.

The data suggests grocers are responding to a channel that converts well above its current comfort level, but not yet one consumers have already embraced. The potential for growth and adoption is high.

Whether Kroger's and Albertsons' investments in proprietary assistants pay off may come down to whether shoppers trust a retailer's own AI more than they trust the idea of AI shopping in general.

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