Tesco starts to roll out new feature to 23 million Clubcard customers

Tesco has started to roll out a meal-planning AI assistant to its customers after testing it with about 280,000 of its employees.

The UK's biggest supermarket began the trial in April, before offering the tool to shoppers last month.

The assistant draws on information collected through purchases made with the grocer's Clubcard.

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.”

When the trial was announced 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.

Shoppers can search for meals by cost, by type of cuisine, or by both together. They can also build a dish by listing items they already have at home that they would like to use up.

According to Tesco, more than 23 million UK households now hold a Clubcard.

The company said that because the assistant uses Clubcard information, it would be able to advise customers on what they may already have in their cupboard or fridge.

The feature is being 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.

It said AI had been “behind the scenes” of its operations, including its Clubcard loyalty programme “for years” to “improve the overall shopping experience”.

The retailer has doubled the size of its technology team over the last five years. It has also signed a three-year strategic partnership with European AI start-up Mistral to develop new AI capabilities.

The move comes as Sainsbury's this week announced the launch of its AI-powered SmartLists feature, which sits within its app and helps customers plan their shop, create a shopping list, find products more easily in store and manage their budget with Nectar prices.

SmartLists lets customers build shopping lists by typing or taking a photo of what they need, with the list then matched to Sainsbury's products.

Items can be added straight to the trolley for online orders.

Sainsbury's product director Ben Edge said: "We know our customers are busy and want shopping to feel simple, joyful and easy to fit around their lives."

“SmartLists is designed to take the effort out of creating and buying a shopping list, whether customers are typing, speaking or taking a picture of what they need.”