Kroger’s AI shopping assistant has ads at launch

This story was first published by Digiday sibling Modern Retail .

Kroger has made advertising part of its AI shopping assistant on day one, following the implementation of advertising features on competitors’ chatbots.

Last week, Kroger launched an AI assistant within the websites and mobile apps of most of its grocery banners, excluding Harris Teeter. The assistant was developed in partnership with Cooklist, an AI platform for grocers. Shoppers can use the assistant to plan meals, find recipes and build a cart around budgets or dietary needs., according to Kroger Precision Marketing — the grocer’s retail media business — which detailed the feature on its website Monday. For other assistants, this feature has typically been introduced later: Walmart, for example, announced advertising features for its Sparky shopping assistant in January, one year after the AI tool’s launch. It had been testing ads in Sparky since the fall. OpenAI began testing ads in ChatGPT in May, several years after its initial launch. Continue reading this article on digiday.com . Sign up for Digiday newsletters to get the latest on media, marketing and the future of TV.