Instacart Integrates Grocery Platform With ChatGPT

Instacart has become the first grocery sector company to launch an app on OpenAI’s ChatGPT.

This integration, announced Monday (Dec. 8), will also see Instacart offer an embedded shopping and checkout offering within ChatGPT conversations, and is designed to make it easier for users to get meal ideas and have the necessary products delivered to their door.

“Instacart and ChatGPT are redefining what’s possible in AI-powered shopping,” Anirban Kundu, Instacart’s chief technology officer, said in a news release.

“Built on Agentic Commerce Protocol, this experience brings intelligent, real-time support to one of the most essential parts of daily life: getting groceries to feed your family. Together, we’re creating a seamless and secure way for people to turn simple conversations into real-world action — helping customers go from inspiration to a full cart delivered from the store to their door with ease.”

According to the release, the new integration is now available on desktop and mobile web. The Instacart ChatGPT app is available on iOS and Android, with Instant Checkout coming to these native platforms in the weeks ahead. ChatGPT, the companies said, can “surface” the Instacart ChatGPT app when a user asks for it by initiating a prompt with Instacart.

After opening the app and signing in, users can get help finding the items they need from local retailers, and pay for their purchases directly in the Instacart app right in ChatGPT with Instant Checkout, without having to switch tabs. From there, products will be shopped and delivered via Instacart’s platform, the release added.

The new integration comes as consumers are growing increasingly comfortable using generative artificial intelligence to help guide retail purchases.

The PYMNTS Intelligence report “Black Friday Shopping Trends Expose Shift to Budget-Driven Buying” found that half of the surveyed consumers had turned to generative AI at least once for their Black Friday purchases this year.

This survey also found that shoppers most commonly used artificial intelligence assistants to seek out discount codes or deals (42%), keep track of prices or monitor price reductions (35%), research and compare product options (31%) come up with gift ideas (30%) and understand product specifications or features (28%).

“Conversational AI, in the form of prompt-based AI platforms such as ChatGPT, Claude or Gemini, is becoming a mainstream shopping concierge,” the report said.

The PYMNTS research is in keeping with recent findings from Visa which showed that 47% of Americans were using AI tools to assist them with this year’s holiday shopping.

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