Shipt, the same-day delivery platform owned by Target, has officially entered the AI shopping assistant race. On Wednesday, the company announced that its new “Ask Shipt” tool will help customers shop more intuitively and turn simple prompts into customized, ready-to-buy carts. The AI shopping assistant is available now in the Shipt app and on Shipt.com.
What Is the Ask Shipt AI Shopping Assistant?
The Ask Shipt AI shopping assistant is designed to make grocery shopping feel more like a conversation and less like a manual search. Instead of scrolling through aisles and adding items one by one, users can simply describe what they need. The AI shopping assistant then builds a cart around that request.
According to Shipt, users can ask the AI shopping assistant to do things like:
“Create a cart for my Saturday tailgate for 25 people and include some brunch items”
“Build a cart for easy school lunches and after-school snacks”
These examples show how the tool is built for real-life situations, not just basic product searches. The AI shopping assistant interprets the intent behind a request, then translates it into a practical cart.
Photo Uploads and Budget-Based Carts
One of the more notable features of the AI shopping assistant is its ability to work with images. Shipt says users can upload a photo of a dish they saw online or at a restaurant, and the AI shopping assistant will identify and add all of the ingredients to a cart. That turns a screenshot or a food photo into a shoppable list in seconds.
The AI shopping assistant also supports budget-driven requests. Users can ask for ideas based on their budget, such as a weeknight meal for a family of five under $35. Rather than guessing what fits, shoppers let the AI shopping assistant assemble a cart that respects both the meal plan and the price limit.
Shipt Joins a Growing List of Delivery Apps
With this launch, Shipt joins a growing list of delivery platforms baking AI assistants into their apps. Just this morning, Instacart launched a new AI-powered grocery shopping assistant called Clementine. Uber Eats and DoorDash have also introduced similar AI assistants this year.
That timing matters. The AI shopping assistant is quickly becoming a standard feature rather than a novelty, and Shipt is now part of that shift. For shoppers, it means more apps compete on how well their AI shopping assistant understands real requests, not just how fast they deliver.
Built on Target’s Broader AI Push
The launch of the Ask Shipt AI shopping assistant follows the recent addition of other AI features on Target.com. Those include AI-powered photo search, customer review summaries, and other personalized shopping experiences. Shipt is owned by Target, so the new tool fits into a wider pattern of AI investment across the company’s shopping ecosystem.
For Target and Shipt, the AI shopping assistant is less about a single feature and more about connecting browsing, planning, and delivery into one flow. A shopper can move from inspiration to a filled cart without leaving the app.
How to Access Ask Shipt
Ask Shipt is available now in the Shipt app and on Shipt.com. There is no separate download or waitlist mentioned in the announcement, so existing Shipt users can try the AI shopping assistant directly in the places they already shop.
What This Means for Shoppers
The rise of the AI shopping assistant could change how people plan meals and restock staples. Instead of building a list first and shopping second, users can describe a need and let the app handle the details. For busy households, that could save time on weekly planning and reduce the back-and-forth of adding items manually.
It also raises the bar for accuracy. An AI shopping assistant that misreads a request or adds the wrong items creates more work, not less. How well Shipt’s tool handles nuance, substitutions, and budget limits will likely determine how often shoppers rely on it.
For now, Shipt’s entry into the AI shopping assistant space signals that delivery apps see conversational shopping as the next major battleground. With Instacart, Uber Eats, and DoorDash already in the mix, the competition is no longer about who has AI, but whose AI shopping assistant is actually useful.
