Think of the action of taking a photo of a piece of hand-written shopping list and having the view of the independent population of an online cart. 

Uber Eats has already implemented this idea by launching its artificial intelligence Cart Assistant that is presented today with the aim to improve delivery services in grocery stores.

Cart Assistant reflects how we think about AI at Uber: starting with real customer needs and building practical solutions within the app

Praveen Neppalli Naga, Uber’s technology, said in a release.

By grounding these features in real user behavior, we can build tools that feel helpful and intuitive

Smart Cart Magic

The feature was first introduced to the iOS system in the United States and allows a user to enter brief lists of items such as milk, eggs, cereal and can include handwritten notes or image clips of recipes. 

The AI quickly builds an already populated shopping cart, with variables which include prior purchases made by users, actual inventory, and pricing information of partner stores such as Safeway, Albertsons, Kroger, Aldi, FreshDirect, Sprouts, Walgreens, and Wegmans. It supports real-time editing, which gives its users the feel that they are dealing with something intuitive, as opposed to something new.

Delivery Wars Heat Up

The competitive forces between Uber and DoorDash and Instacart are enhanced by the approach of the first company. The two organizations joined the grocery market in 2020 due to the pandemic-related demand; Uber has been adding new partner stores on a weekly basis. 

Gross bookings pertaining to delivery also increased by 26% on a yearly basis to 25.4 billion during the fourth quarter in 2025. Instacart then retaliated by launching its own AI Cart Assistant in November 2025 in a partnership with Sprouts to offer customized meal planning.

Road Ahead

Among the improvements are expected to be future android compatibility, the delivery of ingredients suggested by the app, meal planning support, and the option of answering after sales questions. 

With AI turning into an agent of communication, Uber is expected to surpass the grocery market share, in case of the low error rates and expansion opportunities. 

This has not only been an improvement in convenience but a paradigm shift to a frictionless retail experience hence increasing competitive pressure on established players like Walmart.