UK supermarket chain Tesco is testing a conversational AI assistant with nearly 280,000 UK employees, ahead of a broader public rollout scheduled for later this year.
The company has embedded the tool within its existing app, where it currently focuses on meal planning.
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Through a two-way chat interface, it offers recipe suggestions tailored to individual dietary needs and can help build a shopping basket by recommending products tied to those recipes, drawing on a shopper’s purchase history and stored preferences.
Tesco CEO Ken Murphy said: “In the long term, this assistant has the potential to transform the way people shop with us – harnessing the power of AI to personalise the shopping experience for our customers in ways that ultimately save them time and money.”
The workforce trial, now underway, is designed to surface usability issues and potential improvements before the assistant reaches customers.
Tesco has said that staff feedback will directly inform how the product is refined ahead of its wider release.
Behind the tool is a collaboration between Tesco’s internal app, data science and engineering teams and Tomoro AI, which works in alliance with OpenAI.
Work on the project began late last year and was conducted under “strict” confidentiality arrangements.
The retailer noted that AI is already woven into several areas of its business, including its Clubcard loyalty scheme, where it supports personalisation and process optimisation.
Its technology headcount has also doubled over the past five years.
In a separate development, Tesco has signed a three-year strategic partnership with European AI company Mistral to further its AI capabilities.
The company has indicated it intends to broaden the assistant’s scope over time, extending its utility beyond meal planning to cover a wider range of customer requirements.
