Instacart has begun rolling out an agentic artificial intelligence assistant that assembles a personalized grocery cart from a conversation, selected prompts, or an uploaded photo, PYMNTS reports. The assistant is built into Instacart’s Marketplace and, according to the company, was tested for months and is being deployed to millions of U.S. customers, with a full U.S. and Canada rollout expected within months. The company says the assistant uses live inventory data from nearly 100,000 stores across North America, learns favorite brands from order history, finds sale items, and, per PYMNTS, produces orders that are generally larger than typical baskets. Instacart is quoted: “Since early this year, we’ve been testing the experience with consumers.” As of Q1 2026, Instacart said Cart Assistant had reached about 25% of U.S. customers, per its May 2026 earnings release (PYMNTS).
