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customers prefer to use the AI-based tools, which is helping the retailer refine its approach to drive better returns. ALBERTSONS BANKS ON ACI EDGE The news follows Albertsons’ report last month of soft sales results in the first quar- ter. In its earnings call with analysts, the retailer said it was counting on its ACI Edge technology strategy, which consolidates the company’s operating divisions into four regions and is built around the use of AI across the organization, to drive about $200 million in savings this year and next. The initiative includes four enterprise AI priorities: the digital customer experience, merchandising intelligence, labor optimiza- tion and supply chain optimization. Albertsons’ success in driving bigger baskets using AI comes as more and more retailers are expected to follow suit and leverage AI on the path to purchase, accord- ing to a new report from eMarketer. The report projected that AI platforms could drive up to 13.7% of U.S. retail ecommerce sales in 2029, representing a $225.21 billion opportunity. The eMarketer report estimates that about 79.6 million people will use AI plat- forms and assistants to shop in 2026, up 25% over last year. The total number of consumers using AI to shop will increase to 109.3 million in 2030, according to eMar- keter estimates. The increase will be largely driven by millennials, who said they like to use AI tools to compare prices, control spending and streamline the shopping experience, among other functionality, according to the report. —Mark Hamstra food and grocery retail sectors. All food retailers surveyed and more than 97% of grocery retailers said AI is vital to the future of brick-and-mortar operations. All food retailers and 94% of grocery retailers said they are either using AI or planning to integrate the technology. Nearly half, 47.6%, of food retailers and 41.2% of grocery retailers, said they are planning aggressive AI deployment within the next 12 months. The push comes as retailers face per- sistent problems with shrink and theft, particularly at self-checkout. Retailers surveyed by VoCoVo reported
Albertsons’ success in driving bigger baskets using AI comes as more and more retailers are expected to follow suit and leverage AI on the path to purchase.
Albertsons drives bigger baskets using AI Average tickets rise in double digits, boosting ROI on tech investments
INVESTMENTS in AI-powered shopping experiences are driving Albertsons’ basket sizes up an average of 10% for standard conversational searches and 26% for more complex searches, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal . Jill Pavlovich, senior VP of digital shop- ping experiences, also told the WSJ that the Boise, Idaho-based retailer is consolidating multiple customer-facing AI functions, including Ask AI, Plan AI and Buy AI, into a more streamlined service. The goal is both to smooth the customer experience and to drive better returns on the investment in the technology, she said.
Although Albertsons did not realize an immediate return on investment from its rollout of AI-driven shopper experiences, Pavlovich said the tools did drive larger baskets as soon as the tools were rolled out. The largest baskets have been especially notable when customers use AI tools to help build recipes and find ingredients that meet their specific dietary preferences, she said. “All of a sudden they’re shopping across categories, across items, not spearfishing for that single item that they need one by one,” Pavlovich told the WSJ . She said Albertsons has begun to gain a greater understanding about how
Grocers want to use AI for anti- theft, worker abuse The tech is on the verge of exploding over the next year
U.S. FOOD AND GROCERY RETAILERS are moving quickly to adopt artificial intel- ligence as operators look for new ways to address theft, self-checkout losses, employee safety and productivity chal- lenges, according to new research released in August from retail communications
technology company VoCoVo. VoCoVo’s 2026 survey of 250 U.S. retail decision-makers and 500 consumers found broad agreement among food and grocery retailers that AI will play an important role in the future of physical stores. The research included respondents from the
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