Tesco has announced it is testing a new AI‑powered shopping assistant in its app, rolling out the product to 280,000 of its staff as a pilot.

Tesco said the assistant will initially focus on meal planning by responding to conversational prompts with recipe ideas that can be tailored based on customers’ preferences and dietary needs. It can then suggest ingredients to add to customers’ baskets, using factors including previous shopping history and product preferences.

Built directly into the existing Tesco app, the tool is being launched as a beta with colleagues, who will road test the assistant over the coming weeks and provide feedback on which features work best, new use cases and even what the assistant should be called. Tesco said colleagues’ input – drawn from what it describes as the largest private sector workforce in the UK – will be used to refine the experience before a wider customer rollout later this year.

As well as helping customers plan meals, the assistant is designed to support people looking to use up leftover ingredients at home, with Tesco positioning it as a way to save money and time, cut food waste and remove some of the stress from mealtime planning.

The project was developed by Tesco’s in‑house app, data science and engineering teams in collaboration with AI consultancy Tomoro AI.

According to Tesco, work on the assistant has been under strict secrecy protocols since autumn last year, and sits alongside a wider push to embed AI more deeply across the business. The retailer said AI has already been supporting its operations for several years, particularly through Clubcard, where it uses data to sharpen personalisation.

“In the long term, this assistant has the potential to transform the way people shop with us [by] harnessing the power of AI to personalise the shopping experience for our customers in ways that ultimately save them time and money,” said Ken Murphy, Tesco’s chief executive. “Nobody is better placed than our colleagues to help us get this experience right; they understand the customers and communities they serve, and we cannot wait to see how they help shape and improve the assistant in the months ahead.”

In the future, Tesco said it wants to expand the assistant’s capabilities so it can help customers with more aspects of their daily lives.

In March, Tesco announced a £200 million investment in staff pay, lifting rates by as much as 5.1 per cent.

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