Plenty of people want to be an AI pioneer. Craig Oley prefers to enjoy the fast follower advantage.
Speaking at the MACH X conference in Toronto last week, the director of software engineering at Wegmans said the grocery chain prides itself on creating “magical moments,” whether in its more than 100 physical locations or digitally through its website and mobile app. There’s a big difference, however, between magical moments and what he described as AI overload.
“For something like ChatGPT checkout, we watched it unfold, but it wasn’t experience we wanted, especially for multi-item carts,” he said, referring to OpenAI’s initial strategy of allowing direct “Instant Checkout” within the ChatGPT app.
OpenAI has since shifted to routing orders through dedicated retailer apps. “We didn’t invest a ton in that ecosystem, though we recognize (AI) as a discovery signal for customers. We want to make sure our products are there.
Instead of latching on to a particular platform, Oley said Wegmans has spent more time developing a “composable” tech stack based on modular components from vendors who belong to the MACH Alliance, which hosted MACH X.
“Composability set us up for success by giving us a foundation for AI,” he said. “We now have an event-driven architecture with data at our fingertips that lets us apply AI where we need it, when we need it.”
Wegmans looked to its mission statement – “helping customers live better lives with exceptional food” – to guide its use of AI, Oley said. The emphasis was on creating AI-powered CX that felt more like a friend than a robot, matching customer preferences such as protein types, meat cuts and brands.
The company also wanted AI tools that would respect dietary needs and quality expectations, while also offering ideas for quick, ready-to-cook meals.
Wegmans’ AI shopping assistant was launched last month, and offers conversational meal planning and smart basket creation based on order history and personalized recommendation. Customers can Can convert any recipe to a shopping basket.
“You can important a recipe from a website, snap a photo or even the meal you’re eating for dinner tonight,” he said. The AI assistant will then serve up available items to order so customers can shop for what they need and want.
The rollout strategy for Wegmans’ AI assistant began with a small pool of employees, who provided feedback on any strange or unsatisfying outputs. Behind the scenes, Oley’s team has AI platforms like Claude and Microsoft’s CoPilot embedded in its software engineering processes, which he said has led to accelerated development cycles.
Next up, Oley said Wegmans wants to drive AI-powered CX and personalization across its entire website, customizing the way its merchandizes items to be aware of customer preferences as well as factors like seasonality.
“If we’re advertising salmon and you don’t like salmon, that’s a waste of space on our site,” he said. “We want to be able to merchandize what customers truly care about.”
Though there’s still lots to do, Oley said there’s little question AI is changing the experience of grocery shopping.
“You can now share an Instagram post and the web site will build a meal and shop for it,” he said. “We want to do whatever we can to help people fulfill their intentions to live healthier.”