Albertsons Cos. Brings Safeway Grocery Shopping Into ChatGPT

From dinner idea to checkout in ChatGPT

The new Safeway experience in ChatGPT is aimed at customers who want help planning meals and filling a cart. According to OpenAI, shoppers can start with a recipe, a photo, a digital list or a simple request. The examples given include "Plan pizza night for four," "Put together a quick dinner from the deli," and "Restock breakfast foods and snacks using store brands."

ChatGPT then surfaces relevant products and savings, helps build a cart and directs customers to Safeway to check out. Jill Pavlovich, SVP, Digital Customer Experience at Albertsons Companies, said: "This is another practical way we are using AI to reduce friction and make everyday shopping easier."

The experience builds on Albertsons' existing AI shopping assistant and Ask AI capabilities. It is planned to grow beyond Safeway to other grocery brands, including Albertsons, Vons, Jewel-Osco, Shaw's, ACME and Tom Thumb.

AI tools for teams behind the scenes

Albertsons Cos. operates more than 2,200 stores and serves over 36 million customers each week, according to the announcement. Its banners include Albertsons, Safeway, Vons, Jewel-Osco, Shaw's, ACME and Tom Thumb.

Digital shopping, store operations, fulfillment, merchandising and customer experience all rely on systems that teams continually build, test and improve. The company is expanding its use of AI across the organization to help teams handle complexity, speed up workflows and move promising ideas toward production faster.

Through ChatGPT Enterprise and other AI-powered tools, select teams are exploring ways to streamline work, improve decision-making and identify practices that can scale. ChatGPT Enterprise and OpenAI-powered applications are used by teams building retail technology and by business functions where AI can have meaningful impact. By starting in focused areas, Albertsons Cos. says it can evaluate what works, build repeatable practices and lay a foundation for broader innovation.

Recommendations and promotions powered by the API

Through the OpenAI API, Albertsons Cos. is exploring how AI can add value on both sides of retail. For customers, that means more personalized help with building baskets, repurchasing familiar items and planning recipes and meals tailored to their preferences and the information they provide.

Behind the scenes, the company is combining predictive models with generative AI to deliver explainable, data-driven recommendations and promotional insights. The aim is to help merchants weigh business considerations and make more informed decisions. OpenAI says this is supported by a wider set of OpenAI-powered capabilities, from employee tools to commerce apps and advertising solutions that can be extended across the enterprise.

What it means for shoppers and retail

The announcement points to grocery as a promising area for AI-assisted shopping. It cites dunnhumby's February 2026 United States Consumer Trends Tracker, which found that shoppers are more open to using AI for groceries than for other types of purchases.

For customers of Safeway, the change is a way to plan a meal and build a cart in a single conversation before finishing the purchase on the retailer's own site. For Albertsons Cos., the work links customer-facing tools with internal ones, so that, in the company's framing, teams build faster and decisions improve. The source does not give availability details beyond the planned expansion to other banners.