It’s the age of AI in Everything, which at least partly explains why Uber’s Uber Eats app is getting its very own AI assistant. It won’t order you tons of unsolicited pizza (though why that isn’t already a feature is beyond us), but it will help to speed up grocery lists.
Cart Assistant promises to let users build grocery lists for purchase on the app in less time. The feature promises ” fewer taps and more time saved,” though exactly how much time is being saved isn’t clear. It could cut a once-a-week ten-minute job down to just seconds, provided you write the list out first.
Uber Eats itself
Unlike using drones to deliver food, Uber Eats’ launch of Cart Assistant feels more like it’s attempting to participate in the whole ‘let’s all use AI’ aspect of modern tech. The feature, currently still in beta, lets users type a list, add images of food, or upload an image of a hand-written list. These prompts are then, via the magic of AI, turned into a full cart of groceries from a chosen store. Basically, users won’t have to type the first few letters of their food item and then hit the ‘add to cart’ button anymore.
According to the company, this is “an early step in how we’re solving practical problems with agentic AI on Uber Eats, focused on areas we can make the biggest difference.” This, apparently, focuses on “real customer needs and building practical solutions” within the company’s app. The fact that it can be replaced with a handwritten list and still requires users to do most of the work is… in keeping with how AI currently operates for most.
