Dive Brief:

• BJ’s Wholesale Club is pursuing employee- and customer-facing AI use cases, viewing the technology as a long-term investment to improve experiences, according to CEO and Chairman Bob Eddy, speaking during the company’s Q3 2026 earnings call Friday.
• “We'll continue to build on the use of AI,” Eddy said during the financial report last week. “We'll continue to focus on long-term investments that really will allow us to continue our mission."
• The membership-only grocery chain is using AI for coding and code testing, generating to-do lists for team members and spotting in-store quality issues. The grocer also recently launched an AI shopping assistant and predictive shopping lists in beta.

Dive Insight:

Grocers are operating in tricky macroeconomic conditions as cost-conscious customers question higher grocery prices.

With Thanksgiving just a few days away and the winter holidays quickly approaching, grocers continue to look for ways to improve customer experiences. AI has emerged as a common avenue. 

“Everyone talks about AI. We are no different,” Eddy said during BJ’s earnings call last week. “AI is a big part of our future.”

Each month brings a slew of AI-related announcements in the sector. 

Earlier in November, Kroger and Sprouts partnered with grocery delivery platform Instacart to begin implementing an AI tool to help make shopping easier for customers. Dollar General tapped a Silicon Valley executive for its newly created AI role in recent weeks, too. Target also launched an app in beta on ChatGPT for shoppers as part of a partnership with OpenAI. 

Grocery companies, like enterprises in other industries, expect the technology to enhance operations, but they also don’t want to get lost in the hype. 

Losing shopper trust is a concern, with most consumers reporting an interest in AI-driven shopping but wanting at least some safeguards when the technology is implemented, according to a September PwC survey. 

Avoiding unnecessary AI additives and wasted resources are also top of mind for grocery executives navigating adoption plans. 

“Our goal is to be smart and lay the right foundation, not to just run against every shiny use case that’s out there,” Justin Weinstein, chief merchandising and marketing officer at grocer Giant Eagle, said during a session at an industry-related conference attended by Grocery Dive reporters. “I’m not one to just jump to the end and say, ‘AI is a solve for everything.’”