Instacart's New Tool Uses ChatGPT To Help You Meal Prep

The most difficult question in the world may very well be "what's for dinner?" It's a near-universal experience, uniting people in the search for inspiration for the dinner table. Instacart is hoping to be the answer to that query by inviting ChatGPT to the conversation. In a May 31 press release, the company announced that it's rolling out a new in-app search experience, thanks to the generative language tool.

Ask Instacart is a feature that combines both ChatGPT's language models and Instacart's AI tools, including a catalog of more than 80,000 retail items to let customers ask questions around cooking and meal prep. Integrated directly into the search bar, Ask Instacart will let customers ask questions about what to cook and deliver organized results that offer meal suggestions and recommended ingredients.

To go even further, the feature will present question prompts to the customer based on their patterns of previous use.

The company hopes the newly augmented app will become a mainstay in customers life thanks to combining the experience of meal planning with shopping delivery. JJ Zhuang, chief architect for Instacart, said in a statement, "Ask Instacart can help customers answer all of their food questions and deliver the ingredients for the perfect meal in as fast as an hour." That speed and convenience could be valuable for customers looking for a streamlined experience.

Ask Instacart is rolling out to a segment of customers on June 1 before scaling up to cover the entire country's customer base. It's part of a series of AI-enhanced tools the company is employing, starting with an original Instacart plugin for ChatGPT and expanding further in the future.

Whether you want a suggested list of ingredients or need to know what to serve with tonight's meatloaf, Ask Instacart wants to be your new culinary assistant.