US grocery and pharmacy chain Albertson’s is using AI search tools to deliver a 10 percent increase in customer basket size, driving an increase in revenues.
The company reported overall net sales and other revenue of $19.12BN for the 12-week period ended November 29, 2025, an increase of 1.9 percent year on year. But digital sales led the way, climbing by 21 percent during the quarter. That has gained the company market share, with its penetration now at 9.5 percent.
As part of the company’s AI and tech transformation, it introduced an AI search tool last year based on Google Cloud’s Conversational Commerce agent, the first retailer to do so.
The Ask AI tool aims to make online shopping more intuitive by simplifying product discovery and personalizing recommendations. The tool is accessible via the search bar in all of the retailer’s banner store apps, including Albertsons, Safeway, Vons, Jewel-Osco, Shaw’s, ACME and Tom Thumb.
Built on Vertex AI, the Conversational Commerce agent detects shoppers’ intent and preferences and chats with them in real-time to provide relevant results and product recommendations. This is directly boosting sales as customers often add more items to their purchases, Albertson’s CEO, Susan Morris, said on the company’s quarterly earnings call.
“By leveraging AI, we’re creating differentiated experiences that go beyond convenience. They increase basket size, drive repeat trips, and deepen loyalty. Early results are compelling.”
“Our Ask AI search capability is already delivering a 10% increase in basket size for those customers using it, signaling a meaningful revenue upside as adoption scales.”
In December 2025, Albertsons added a web browser-based AI shopping assistant powered by OpenAI, which builds on the search tool to take on more complex tasks using multiple collaborative agents, such as restocking essentials, adding items from recipes directly into the shopper’s basket, or planning special occasions. “All of those things help deepen baskets and repeat trips for us,” Morris said, adding:
“[O]ur autonomous shopping assistance is meeting customers where they are and delivering frictionless personalized journeys, keeping our omnichannel customer experience modernized and on trend.”
The AI assistant interacts with customers in natural language to receive personalized recommendations and build their baskets faster. The average American consumer spends an estimated 46 minutes shopping at a grocery store, but the assistant can bring this down to as little as four minutes, according to Albertsons. OpenAI introduced AgentKit, a set of tools for developers and enterprises to build, deploy, and optimize agents, in October 2025, with Albertsons one of the customers announced at launch.
“This innovation enhances convenience for our customers, while strengthening our competitive advantage by leveraging rich data to optimize marketing, improve loyalty, and unlock new monetization opportunities,” Morris said.
Digital Engagement Drives Higher Spend as Agentic Commerce Gains Traction
Albertsons has found that its customers engaged in digital spend around 2-3 times more than those who are not. Engagement rises further as customers broaden their experience in the retailer’s ecosystem through online ordering, loyalty, and different features in its apps.
With agentic commerce expected to gain momentum in 2026, the retailer plans to add more capabilities as it expands the AI assistant to its mobile apps early in the year, including budgeting, in-store aisle location to help shoppers find a specific product, and voice integration. The assistant’s multi‑agent architecture can also enable integrations with agents outside the app in the future, such as through the chat feature.
The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) in the UK expects that agentic AI will evolve so that consumers will also use their own personal AI agents for shopping within the next five years. Agentic commerce is set to change the way consumers shop, anticipating their needs and making purchases proactively based on learned and defined preferences, rather than specific prompts.
This means that beyond retailers’ AI assistants like Albertsons recommending products, customers’ AI shopping companions could go as far as assessing purchases within the context of the customers’ bank accounts and other spending plans, and schedule purchases around seasonal sale events, even negotiating prices with sellers directly, according to the ICO.
Retailers will need to prepare for agentic commerce by offering AI assistants in their digital touchpoints as well as accommodating external agents acting within their systems. This will also create opportunities to build loyalty and trust.
William Malcolm, Executive Director of Regulatory Risk and Innovation, said:
“Agentic AI will have the capacity to make decisions and take actions independently. Our own personal AI agents could be paying for goods, booking flights and helping with household finances. While the potential benefits could be transformational, the public needs assurances their personal information is secure and well managed before placing their trust in agentic systems.”
Morris said on Albertson’s earnings call that the retailer is scaling AI across its operations, in internal as well as customer-facing functions.
“We’re not just adopting AI. We’re working to scale it across the enterprise to fundamentally change how we operate and how customers experience Albertsons. This is not incremental. It’s designed to be a step change in speed, intelligence, and personalization.”
The company is making “transformational big bets” in four areas. Beyond the digital customer experience, it is also deploying GenAI to optimize labor forecasting and scheduling to reduce costs while improving its employee experience through intuitive conversational tools.
“By leveraging AI, we ensure the right associates are in the right place at the right time which not only drives productivity, but also elevates customer service,” Morris said.
This aims to simplify complex scheduling tasks, free up associates to focus on interacting with customers, and ensure consistency across store locations.
The company is also using AI demand forecasting in its supply chain operations, supporting product tracking from vendor to customer, Morris said.
“By applying advanced analytics and computer vision, we’re improving forecasting accuracy, fulfillment, quality, and on-shelf availability, optimizing labor, and inventory while ensuring that customers can find the products they need, when and where they need them.”
Albertson’s strategy is to turn technology into a growth engine, Morris said, improving margins and deepening customer loyalty. The company’s loyalty program membership grew by 12 percent during the third quarter to more than 49 million members. It has found that simplifying and enhancing the program has increased engagement.
“Members are transacting more frequently, redeeming rewards more easily, and spending more,” Morris said. “Our most loyal customers definitely have outsized growth in lifetime value. And our focus there is to continue to build upon that strength as customers engage with us, delivering more personalized journeys.”
