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.