Instacart's AI-powered shopping cart turns shopping into a side quest (2025)

Grocery shopping as a game without checkout lines could make a sometimes tedious errand more bearable thanks to an AI infusion into Instacart’s Caper Carts. Instacart augmented the smart grocery carts with new AI features. They offer a touchscreen that provides navigation guidance to the products you’re looking for, as well as personalized recommendations, discounts, and even a way to make shopping into a kind of treasure-hunting game.

Instacart created the Caper Carts to skip the need for checkout lines. They have cameras, a scale, and other sensors to evaluate items placed within, while the screen lets you know what the cart thinks you just pulled from the shelf using Nvidia’s AI libraries of information about products plus its on-device AI processing platform. You can buy everything before you even get to the front of the store and simply walk out when you’re done.

The AI in the new Caper Cart offers a lot more than just a faster checkout, though. They come with real-time location tracking to note where you are and lead you to what you want to buy. You can upload your grocery list to the cart with a QR code in the Instacart app, which then displays it on the cart’s screen. It can also do the same for products on sale that pique your interest, offering discounts based on your location.

If you want more fun in your shopping tasks, there’s always gamification. The Caper Cart has a feature that creates quests for items on your shopping list as though you’re in a video game. There are real prizes, too. Adding one item to your cart can lead to products with additional discounts related to what you’re buying, such as an extra percentage off soda when buying disposable cups. Anything that leads to more purchases is likely to make grocery store owners happy, of course, even if the Caper Cart is more expensive than the traditional metal basket.

“Caper Carts are ushering in a new era at the grocery store – making shopping more delightful while delivering a seamless experience for customers, retailers, and brands,” Instacart Chief Connected Stores Officer David McIntosh said. “With Caper Cart’s digital screen, we’re now delivering an unmatched omnichannel experience for retailers and brands in-store. Today’s news is further proof of how we’re truly transforming grocery shopping from a chore to a fun adventure, giving customers a one-of-a-kind, interactive experience in every aisle of the grocery store.”

Grocery stores might find the Caper Cart appealing not just for making shopping faster for customers but for the advertising option on the screen that they can use for in-store promotions and sponsored product recommendations from brands with products in the store. It makes for a kind of mobile impulse purchase aisle that way. More than 70 locations have rolled out Caper Carts, including big grocery chains like Fairway Market, Kroger, and ShopRite, as well as ALDI stores in Austria.

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