Select Samsung refrigerators will use artificial intelligence to help consumers manage their food inventory, place grocery orders through the refrigerator’s screen and receive those groceries via same-day delivery through Instacart.
These capabilities will be enabled by a new multiyear partnership that brings together Samsung’s food recognition technology called AI Vision Inside and Instacart’s product-matching API, the companies said in a Thursday (Jan. 2) press release.
The Instacart Marketplace experience will make its debut on yet-to-be-determined 2025 Bespoke refrigerator models with different types of screens, according to the release. It will also be added to existing AI Family Hub+ refrigerators equipped with AI Vision Inside via over-the-network firmware updates during 2025.
“The combination of Samsung’s key technology and Instacart’s outstanding online grocery shopping platform will be a great example of how partnership can create a new level of convenience,” Jeong Seung Moon, executive vice president and head of the consumer experience team for the digital appliances business at Samsung Electronics, said in the release.
The integration of the Instacart Marketplace experience with Samsung refrigerators will be powered by the Instacart Developer Platform, an API program that was launched in March and enables third parties to add the functionality of Instacart to their websites and apps, according to the release.
The Instacart Marketplace facilitates online shopping, delivery and pickup service in partnership with more than 1,500 national, regional and local retail banners and their more than 85,000 stores across North America, per the release.
“We’ve all dreamt of a refrigerator that could replenish itself, and now thanks to this partnership with Samsung, that’s no longer the stuff of science fiction,” Instacart Chief Product Officer Daniel Danker said in the release.
When announcing the launch of its API program in March, Instacart said it had already integrated with New York Times Cooking to make recipes shoppable; with WeightWatchers to purchase foods in keeping with the program’s recommendations; and with GE Appliances to make products such as ovens offer shopping capabilities from their touchscreens.
The share of consumers using smart home devices increased in 2023, with voice assistants, smart thermostats and security systems becoming part of users’ everyday routines, according to the PYMNTS Intelligence ConnectedEconomy™ report, “The Evolving Digital Daily.”
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