Meet Clementine: Instacart's AI Shopping Assistant That Takes "What's for Dinner?" Off Your Plate

Instacart extends its AI capabilities with Clementine and Cart Assistant, aiming to drive larger baskets and AI-powered shopping for retailers.

Rhea-AI Summary

Instacart (CART) launched Clementine, an AI-powered grocery shopping assistant now available to most customers in the U.S. and Canada on the Instacart Marketplace.

Clementine converts natural-language requests, grocery lists, photos, or recipes into personalized, ready-to-buy carts in seconds, grounded in real-time store inventory, customer preferences, and budgets. It is powered by Instacart’s grocery data, including over 1.6 billion lifetime orders, a catalog of more than 2 billion items, and more than 10 million daily inventory signals from nearly 100,000 stores across more than 2,200 retail banners.

Early results show orders placed with Clementine contain more items and exceed Instacart’s industry-leading average basket size of $115.

Positive

• Clementine launch at scale Now available to most Instacart customers across the U.S. and Canada
• Data advantage Built on 1.6 billion lifetime orders and 2+ billion catalog items
• Operational reach Uses 10+ million daily inventory signals from nearly 100,000 stores and 2,200+ retail banners
• Basket economics Orders via Clementine exceed Instacart’s $115 average basket size
• Retailer adoption Food Bazaar, Heritage Grocers Group, and Woodman’s live on Cart Assistant, with ALDI U.S. and others to follow
• Platform integrations AI shopping flows can start on Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini, or Google AI Mode and complete on Instacart

Negative

• None.

Market Context

The Dec 08 ChatGPT integration was followed by a 0.72% 24-hour move, providing context for Clementin...

Analysis

The Dec 08 ChatGPT integration was followed by a 0.72% 24-hour move, providing context for Clementine's expansion of Instacart's AI shopping distribution across consumer platforms.

Key Figures

Lifetime orders: Over 1.6 billion Catalog items: More than 2 billion Daily inventory signals: More than 10 million +3 more

Lifetime orders

Over 1.6 billion

Instacart platform foundation

Catalog items

More than 2 billion

Instacart platform foundation

Daily inventory signals

More than 10 million

Real-time inventory intelligence

Store coverage

Nearly 100,000 stores

North American inventory foundation

Retail banner coverage

More than 2,200 retail banners

North America

Average basket size

$115

Company average basket size; Clementine orders exceeded it

Previous AI Reports

5 past events · Latest: Jun 04

Same Type 5 events

1. Jun 04

   AI Caper Carts

   24h Move

   +3.8%

   Instacart and Weis Markets launched AI-powered carts with personalized coupons and spend tracking.

2. Dec 08

   ChatGPT app launch

   24h Move

   +0.7%

   Instacart launched an integrated ChatGPT app with embedded grocery checkout capabilities.

3. Nov 04

   AI relationship expansion

   24h Move

   -2.6%

   Kroger expanded its Instacart relationship to include Cart Assistant and AI-driven customer experiences.

4. Nov 04

   Enterprise AI launch

   24h Move

   -2.6%

   Instacart launched enterprise AI products including Cart Assistant for grocers.

5. Sep 10

   AI Caper Carts

   24h Move

   +3.3%

   Instacart partnered with Morrisons to introduce AI-powered shopping carts in the United Kingdom.

24h Move is the share-price change in the day after each event; other market factors may also have contributed.

Key Terms

white-label, agentic shopping experience

2 terms

white-label technical

"Cart Assistant is Instacart's white-label AI shopping assistant"

A white-label product or service is made by one company but sold under another company's brand so the reseller can offer it as if they created it. Think of it like a supermarket selling a generic cereal that was produced in the same factory as national brands. For investors, white-label arrangements can boost revenue and speed market entry with lower development costs, but they also concentrate reliance on third-party suppliers and can limit differentiation and pricing power.

agentic shopping experience technical

"offer their own branded agentic shopping experience"

A shopping setup that gives customers clear control over choices, personalization, and how they move through buying — like a self-service store where shoppers pick options, tailor products, and complete transactions with little steering from sellers. It matters to investors because experiences that let customers act as their own decision-makers can change sales patterns, engagement, and repeat business the way a user-friendly app can boost how often people return to use it.

AI-generated analysis. How Rhea-AI works. Not financial advice.

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Now available to customers across the U.S. and Canada on the Instacart Marketplace, Clementine turns a conversation, grocery list, or recipe into a personalized cart in seconds

Clementine is the latest milestone in Instacart's AI strategy, with its enterprise Cart Assistant already live on retailer storefronts across North America

SAN FRANCISCO, Sept. 9, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Instacart (NASDAQ: CART), a leading grocery technology company, today introduced Clementine, its AI-powered grocery shopping assistant, now available to customers across North America on the Instacart Marketplace. The company also announced new grocery partners now live with Cart Assistant, its enterprise AI shopping assistant, giving retailers a branded shopping experience powered by their own catalog and customer data, and made smarter by the same technology and intelligence behind Clementine.

Clementine is built around the hardest parts of grocery shopping: deciding what to make for dinner, shopping the way a family actually eats, and staying on budget without the mental load. A message like "I need a week of budget-friendly kid lunches," "high-protein easy dinners for two," or "order my usuals" becomes a personalized, ready-to-buy cart in seconds. The experience is grounded in what's actually available on shelves in real time from the customer's chosen store, so people can spend less time figuring out what's for dinner and more time actually enjoying it.

"Every night, millions of families ask the same question: 'What's for dinner?' Not knowing the answer, let alone what to shop for, is one of the most universal human experiences, and a problem Instacart is built to solve," said Chris Rogers, CEO of Instacart. "We've spent nearly 15 years learning how families shop and eat, and Clementine puts that knowledge to work. It learns from the preferences you share and the way you've shopped on Instacart. It can help you stay on budget and surface what's actually in stock at your chosen store, handling enough of the weekly planning that the mental load actually feels lighter."

More than 80% of Americans say figuring out what to make for dinner causes them stress, and nearly a third say the hardest part isn't the cooking, it's deciding what to make. More than three in five say they'd be interested in an AI assistant that could help.¹ 

What sets Clementine apart is the foundation behind it: over 1.6 billion lifetime orders, a catalog of more than 2 billion items, and more than 10 million daily inventory signals from nearly 100,000 stores across more than 2,200 retail banners in North America.² This foundation powers the company's inventory intelligence, helping Clementine understand what's on store shelves in real time, and providing a deep understanding of how families actually eat, what they buy week after week, and what's on sale at their store at any given moment.

What Clementine can do:

• Dinner, sorted. Finding the right recipe shouldn't be half the work. Clementine handles it, generating personalized recipes on the spot or surfacing curated options from trusted publishers.
• Personalized to every household. Whether it's gluten-free, vegetarian, nut-free, or organic, Clementine suggests based on how a household actually eats. An expanded preference center lets customers set their choices once, and Clementine applies them across the experience.
• Savings without the work. Clementine can surface relevant deals and promotions and help customers find lower-cost alternatives, so it's easy to shop on any budget.
• Reorder on autopilot. "Shop my usuals" or "restock my pantry staples" pulls from past order history to assemble a ready-to-buy list in seconds.
• Shop for any occasion. "Everything for a football watch party for 20 people" becomes a tailored list, based on brand preferences and dietary choices.
• Grocery list upload. Snap a photo of a handwritten list, or screenshot a digital one, and Clementine turns it into a list that can be added to cart in seconds.

Early results show a clear progression: customers start with simple tasks like restocking, then graduate to higher-order use cases like recipe discovery. On average, orders placed with Clementine include more items than Instacart's typical basket and exceed the company's industry-leading $115 average basket size.³

"Grocery shopping is one of the most routine things people do, and also one of the most personal," said John Adams, Vice President and Head of Product at Instacart. "What we built with Clementine is a system that understands both of those things — not just what you need, but how you eat, what you love, and what's on the shelves at your store right now. Whatever you're craving or planning for, Clementine can get you there. The more you use it, the more it feels like a natural part of how your household shops, becoming something you reach for week after week."

The grocery intelligence behind Clementine reaches beyond the Instacart app. 

Cart Assistant is Instacart's white-label AI shopping assistant, built for grocers who want to offer their own branded agentic shopping experience on their website and app. It combines Instacart's grocery intelligence with the retailer's catalog and customer data to create a branded assistant that knows what customers need, surfacing relevant deals and recipes, and building carts without requiring customers to search item by item. Grocers can customize everything from the name and tone to loyalty integration and recipe content, so the experience feels entirely their own.

Food Bazaar, Heritage Grocers Group, and Woodman's are now live with Cart Assistant, with ALDI U.S., Harmon's, The Save Mart Companies, Stew Leonard's, and additional partners to follow. For grocers looking to compete in an era of AI-powered shopping, Cart Assistant lets them bring that capability to their own customers, in their own experience.

Instacart has also partnered with Anthropic, OpenAI, and Google so grocery conversations that begin on Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini, or AI Mode in Google Search can be seamlessly completed on Instacart, where users can place an order from their preferred retailer for delivery or pickup.

Clementine is available today to most U.S. and Canadian Instacart customers through the app and website. Open the Instacart app or website and select a retailer. On mobile, tap the Clementine icon on the top right above the search bar. On desktop, find it at the top of the left-hand navigation bar. Find more information on Clementine here and Cart Assistant here. 

About Instacart
Instacart is a leading grocery technology company that partners with more than 2,200 retail banners – representing nearly 100,000 stores – to transform how people shop for the groceries they need from the retailers they trust, while creating flexible earning opportunities for shoppers. Through the Instacart Marketplace, Instacart Enterprise platform, and Instacart Ads ecosystem, the company powers ecommerce, fulfillment, in-store technology, AI offerings, and advertising for partners. For more information, visit www.instacart.com/company. Maplebear Inc. is the registered corporate name of Instacart.

¹ This survey was conducted online within the United States by The Harris Poll on behalf of Instacart from June 2-4, 2026, among 2,059 adults ages 18 and older. The sampling precision of Harris online polls is measured using a Bayesian credible interval. For this study, sample data is accurate to within +/- 2.7 percentage points at a 95% confidence level. This interval will be wider among subsets of the surveyed population. For complete survey methodology, including weighting variables and subgroup sample sizes, contact press@instacart.com.
² As of December 31, 2025.
³ As of June 30, 2026.

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SOURCE Maplebear Inc. dba Instacart

FAQ

What can Clementine do for Instacart customers?

Clementine can generate personalized recipes, apply dietary and product preferences, surface relevant deals and lower-cost alternatives, restock “usuals,” build lists for occasions such as a football watch party, and convert uploaded handwritten or digital grocery lists into ready-to-buy carts, all based on real-time availability at a chosen store.

How does Instacart’s Cart Assistant differ from Clementine?

Cart Assistant is Instacart’s white-label AI shopping assistant for grocers, embedded on a retailer’s own website and app. It uses Instacart’s grocery intelligence combined with the grocer’s catalog and customer data to create a branded agent that surfaces deals and recipes and builds carts without item-by-item search. Retailers can customize the name, tone, loyalty integration, and recipe content so the experience feels native to their brand.

Which grocery retailers are already live or planned for Cart Assistant?

Food Bazaar, Heritage Grocers Group, and Woodman’s are currently live with Cart Assistant. ALDI U.S., Harmons, The Save Mart Companies, Stew Leonard’s, and additional partners are expected to follow.

How does Instacart integrate Clementine with external AI platforms?

Instacart has partnered with Anthropic, OpenAI, and Google so that grocery-related conversations that begin on Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini, or AI Mode in Google Search can transition into Instacart, where users can complete their order for delivery or pickup from their preferred retailer.

How can customers access Clementine in the Instacart experience?

Clementine is available through the Instacart app and website. Customers select a retailer and then, on mobile, tap the Clementine icon at the top right above the search bar. On desktop, Clementine is located at the top of the left-hand navigation bar.