Tesco has begun rolling out an AI meal-planning assistant to customers in the UK after trialling it with around 280,000 employees. The supermarket began the trial in April and started expanding access to customers last month. The assistant is linked to information from purchases made with Tesco’s Clubcard, which the company says it can use to suggest items customers may already have in their cupboard or fridge.

Customers can search for meals by cost, cuisine or both, and list ingredients they already have at home that they want to use. Tesco said the assistant offers a “natural, two-way dialogue” with personalised recipe ideas that take dietary preferences into account. It is being built into the Tesco app as part of a long-term plan to add help with more parts of customers’ day-to-day lives. Tesco chief executive Ken Murphy said the company was beginning the customer rollout of the meal-planning assistant alongside work on AI-enabled personalisation and Your Clubcard Prices.

Tesco’s in-house teams developed the assistant with Tomoro AI, a UK consultancy founded in 2023 and allied with OpenAI. Tesco said the work had taken place under “strict secrecy protocols” since autumn last year. The supermarket said AI had supported operations, including its Clubcard loyalty programme, “for years”; it has doubled the size of its technology team over the last five years and signed a three-year strategic partnership with European AI start-up Mistral to develop AI capabilities.

Sainsbury’s announced this week that it had launched SmartLists in its app. The feature lets customers type or photograph items they need, matches them to Sainsbury’s products, and lets them add items directly to the trolley for online orders. Sainsbury’s said SmartLists is intended to help customers plan shopping, find products in store and manage budgets with Nectar prices.

Tesco has begun rolling out an AI meal-planning assistant to customers in the UK after trialling it with around 280,000 employees. The supermarket began the trial in April and started expanding access to customers last month. The assistant is linked to information from purchases made with Tesco’s Clubcard, which the company says it can use to suggest items customers may already have in their cupboard or fridge.

Customers can search for meals by cost, cuisine or both, and list ingredients they already have at home that they want to use. Tesco said the assistant offers a “natural, two-way dialogue” with personalised recipe ideas that take dietary preferences into account. It is being built into the Tesco app as part of a long-term plan to add help with more parts of customers’ day-to-day lives. Tesco chief executive Ken Murphy said the company was beginning the customer rollout of the meal-planning assistant alongside work on AI-enabled personalisation and Your Clubcard Prices.

Tesco’s in-house teams developed the assistant with Tomoro AI, a UK consultancy founded in 2023 and allied with OpenAI. Tesco said the work had taken place under “strict secrecy protocols” since autumn last year. The supermarket said AI had supported operations, including its Clubcard loyalty programme, “for years”; it has doubled the size of its technology team over the last five years and signed a three-year strategic partnership with European AI start-up Mistral to develop AI capabilities.

Sainsbury’s announced this week that it had launched SmartLists in its app. The feature lets customers type or photograph items they need, matches them to Sainsbury’s products, and lets them add items directly to the trolley for online orders. Sainsbury’s said SmartLists is intended to help customers plan shopping, find products in store and manage budgets with Nectar prices.