Albertsons launches Safeway shopping app in ChatGPT
Albertsons Companies has launched a Safeway shopping experience inside ChatGPT that takes shoppers from a meal idea to a filled cart, giving one of the largest US grocers an agentic commerce channel.
Albertsons Companies is expanding its work with OpenAI, according to a customer case study OpenAI published. The most concrete piece is a new Safeway experience inside ChatGPT.
Shoppers can start from a recipe, a photo, a digital list or a plain request such as "Plan pizza night for four" or "Restock breakfast foods and snacks using store brands." ChatGPT then shows relevant products and savings, helps build a cart and sends the customer to Safeway to check out. Checkout happens on Safeway's side, not inside ChatGPT.
The feature builds on Albertsons' existing AI shopping assistant and "Ask AI" tools. The company plans to extend it to its other banners: Albertsons, Vons, Jewel-Osco, Shaw's, ACME and Tom Thumb. Albertsons runs more than 2,200 stores that serve over 36 million customers a week.
"This is another practical way we are using AI to reduce friction and make everyday shopping easier," said Jill Pavlovich, SVP of Digital Customer Experience at Albertsons Companies.
Inside the company, Albertsons uses ChatGPT Enterprise with "select teams," including teams that build retail technology. Through the OpenAI API, it combines predictive models with generative AI to produce explainable product recommendations and promotional insights for merchants. The post also mentions OpenAI-powered advertising tools but gives no details.
The announcement leaves out key facts. It gives no rollout timeline for the other banners, no usage or performance figures, no seat counts and no financial terms of the partnership.