AI and grocery - a UK perspective from Morrisons, Iceland and Tesco

Three UK grocery chains, three very different AI stories - Morrisons, Iceland, and Tesco have all had different tales to tell this week.

Let’s start with the ‘difficult’ one - Morrisons has revealed plans to slash up to 200 positions at its HQ and, as is by now traditional in 2026, the finger of blame/the credit is being placed at the door of AI. Staff consultations have begun to finalise the latest round of redundancies at the retailer, this round impacting operations staff with Marketing, Commercial and Technical teams at the Bradford HQ believed to be in the firing line. The job losses will be the second wave of redundancies at Morrisons within just a few weeks, following cuts to the convenience buying team last month.

On a more positive note, Iceland Foods has tapped into invent.ai's AI tech to overhaul its crucial inventory management. The tech continuously learns from historical trends and adjusts for lost sales, providing highly accurate forecasts and actionable guidance for every SKU across the network. This in turn allows Iceland to make faster operational decisions and respond proactively to customer demand changes to improve product availability, enhance customer experience,  and maximize sales.

Matt Downes, Supply Chain Director at Iceland Foods, says:

AI is giving us the visibility and control we’ve never had before. We can now keep shelves consistently stocked with the products our customers want, reduce lost sales and improve the overall shopping experience across every store and distribution center.

Every little at Tesco

Finally, Tesco has confirmed it is piloting a new AI assistant integrated with the firm’s app that will help shoppers with meal planning. Once a customer settles on a recipe, the AI assistant builds their shopping basket within the app, finding suitable products and using insights like a customer’s previous shopping history and preferences.  

Customers can say if they are looking to use up leftover ingredients in the fridge or cupboard. Tesco says the assistant will offer customers options to save money and time, reduce food waste and takes stress out of mealtime planning.

Around 280,000 of Tesco staffers will be trialling the assistant , which has been developed with OpenAI and UK consultancy Tomoro AI, over the coming weeks, before it is rolled out to customers later this year. Tesco chief executive Ken Murphy pitches: 

We want to give customers the best possible experience every time they shop with Tesco, and this assistant gives us one more way to help them and make their lives a little easier. In the long term, this assistant has the potential to transform the way people shop with us – harnessing the power of AI to personalize the shopping experience for our customers in ways that ultimately save them time and money.”

The supermarket chain already uses AI to enhance its Clubcard loyalty scheme.  And increase personalisation for customers. This week the firm also announced a strategic AI partnership with Adobe to improve the shopping experience for customers with helpful, personalized prompts that offer individual recommendations, ideas and deals.

With more than 24 million households, Tesco Clubcard is one of the largest loyalty and reward schemes in UK retail, with millions of customers receiving personalized and timely offers, product recommendations and recipe ideas.

Using technology including Adobe’s agentic AI capabilities and Adobe Firefly Foundry, Tesco’s personalization and AI teams will use customer intelligence  gleaned from the loyalty scheme to better anticipate customers’ needs, in order to serve up cutting-edge, personalized content, offers and experiences across its digital channels.

The two firms also announced the launch of a new Tesco x Adobe Innovation Lab, a co-innovation model, which will bring together the best of Tesco’s extensive own in-house technology and expertise with Adobe’s leading capabilities in AI. Adobe engineers will work directly alongside Tesco personalisation and AI teams.

Becky Brock, Tesco Group Customer Digital Transformation Director, says:

At Tesco, we want customers to feel that the more they use their Clubcard, the more use it is to them. Working with Adobe, we can be even more responsive to the needs of shoppers. We can act in the moment, getting the right messages, savings or ideas to the right customers, just when they need them.

Our focus is always on finding ways to surprise and delight our customers, and the partnership with Adobe gives us more ways to do that - using AI to benefit our customers with shopping experiences that are genuinely personalized, convenient and helpful.

My take

A sector ripe for AI impact, one way or another...