Albertsons Reports 26% Basket Lift From AI Shopping Tools

Albertsons Reports 26% Basket Lift From AI Shopping Tools

Albertsons is seeing substantial basket size increases from its AI-powered shopping experiences, with average order values rising 10% for standard conversational searches and 26% for more complex queries, according to details first reported by the Wall Street Journal.

The Boise, Idaho-based grocer's AI tools — including Ask AI, Plan AI, and Buy AI — are now being consolidated into a more streamlined service. Jill Pavlovich, senior VP of digital shopping experiences, told the WSJ that the consolidation aims to improve customer experience while driving better returns on the company's technology investments.

The largest basket increases have occurred when customers use AI tools to build recipes and find ingredients matching specific dietary preferences. "All of a sudden they're shopping across categories, across items, not spearfishing for that single item that they need one by one," Pavlovich said.

Why it matters

While Albertsons did not achieve immediate ROI from its AI rollout, the double-digit basket size increases demonstrate how conversational commerce can shift shopping behavior from single-item purchases to broader category exploration. As the company refines its approach based on usage patterns, the technology is becoming a key component of its cost-savings strategy during a period of soft sales performance.

Integration with broader AI strategy

The basket size gains come as Albertsons leans heavily on its ACI Edge technology strategy following soft first-quarter sales results reported last month. The initiative consolidates the company's operating divisions into four regions and targets approximately $200 million in savings this year and next.

ACI Edge encompasses four enterprise AI priorities: digital customer experience, merchandising intelligence, labor optimization, and supply chain optimization. The digital shopping tools generating the basket increases represent just one pillar of this broader transformation.

Industry trajectory

Albertsons' results align with broader retail trends. A new eMarketer report projects that AI platforms could drive up to 13.7% of U.S. retail ecommerce sales by 2029, representing a $225.21 billion opportunity.

The research firm estimates that approximately 79.6 million people will use AI platforms and assistants to shop in 2026, up 25% from the previous year. That figure is projected to reach 109.3 million by 2030, driven largely by millennials who use AI tools to compare prices, control spending, and streamline shopping.

Pavlovich indicated that Albertsons has gained deeper understanding of how customers prefer to use AI-based tools, enabling the retailer to refine its approach and improve returns on the technology investment.

These details were first reported by the Wall Street Journal.