Dive Brief:
- Albertsons is betting on technology, including AI, to bolster the grocery store chain’s long-term competitive advantage, CEO Susan Morris said during the company’s Q3 2025 earnings call Wednesday. The company’s reported net sales and other revenues increased just under 2% and reported online sales increased 21% during the quarter.
- The grocer is partnering with tech giants including Google, OpenAI and Databricks to enable its technology transformation, Morris told investors. Albertsons will focus its technology efforts on four areas: digital customer experience, merchandising intelligence, empowering and managing labor and optimizing its end-to-end supply chain.
- “We’re not just adopting AI,” Morris said. “We’re working to scale it across the enterprise to fundamentally change how we operate and how customers experience Albertsons.”
Dive Insight:
Albertsons has not been immune to economic challenges over the years, and its CEO is hopeful that AI will serve as a transformational technology the company needs to make it more competitive.
Doing so means the grocer joins a growing league of companies chasing the promise of AI. Kroger said in September that it plans to use AI to accelerate the modernization of its operations and boost shopper experiences.
Both Kroger and Sprouts Farmers Market will be among the first grocery store chains to adopt Cart Assistant, an AI-powered online agent developed by Instacart to assist shoppers with building their grocery baskets digitally. Meanwhile, Walmart last year developed four “super agents” to not only help customers shop online, but to support suppliers, sellers and advertisers, accelerate software testing and centralize scheduling and sales data.
Albertsons is investing in its own AI journey, from shopping assistants to supply chain optimization.
“Our advanced cloud data infrastructure provides the foundation for scaling AI solutions and business processes across the enterprise,” Morris said during the earnings call.
The grocer has adopted an AI assistant to improve customers’ shopping experience online. Its Ask AI search capability has resulted in a 10% increase in grocery basket utilization for customers using the tool, Morris said. Albertsons’ autonomous shopping assistants are also working to provide customers with personalized journeys, she added.
The company plans to provide merchants with AI-driven insights for optimizing pricing, transforming category management and supporting promotions decisions. Albertsons will rely on generative AI to help manage its workforce by providing conversational tools and improving employee scheduling.
Lastly, Albertsons plans to use AI to shore up its end-to-end supply chain. Using advanced analytics, Morris said the grocer aims to improve demand forecasting accuracy, enable precise product tracking and bolster on-shelf availability.
The company invested $462 million in capital expenditures to upgrade its store fleet, as well as advance digital technology and supply chain capabilities, Sharon McCollam, Albertsons’ CFO, said during the earnings call.
“From a digital and technology perspective, we further invested in AI and digital transformation to create structural cost advantages, deepen customer loyalty and unlock new profit pools, further modernizing the company for sustainable, profitable growth in an evolving retail landscape,” McCollam said.
