Pick n Pay’s asap! pioneers the country's first fully integrated AI-powered grocery shopping companion.
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Online grocery shopping should become easier in South Africa from next week after Pick n Pay’s asap! announced plans to launch Penny, the country's first fully integrated AI-powered grocery shopping companion.
Instead of searching for products manually, scrolling and selecting through product lists, customers can ask Penny what they need using voice – in any language, text or photos, and she'll instantly build their basket.
The new feature is available in the latest version of the Pick n Pay asap! app and will be rolled out to all customers in July, commencing from 6 July 2026.
Using Penny, customers can: shop conversationally in multiple languages, dictate their shopping list using voice notes, upload photos of handwritten shopping lists or a list of ingredients from a recipe, snap products they want to order, photograph ingredients already in their fridge and ask for meal ideas, ask for recipes and instantly add ingredients to their basket, suggest ingredient substitutions and help plan meals, budget, or provide entertaining meal and drinks ideas.
Penny also allows customers to reload their usual weekly basket or reorder a previous shop with a simple request.
Penny recommends products based on customers' preferences, including quantity, brand and price. Integrated with the group's loyalty program Smart Shopper, it can also personalise recommendations based on previous purchases and shopping habits.
The “conversational AI shopping experience” is new in South Africa, and is also a new development globally, as an online search by Business Report showed that, for instance, it has only become available from some retailers in the UK last year. Basic chatbots, such as text and messaging-based automated shopping assistants, were first rolled out a decade ago.Pick n Pay
Pick n Pay Omnichannel Retail Executive Enrico Ferigol said this was not just another app feature; it represents a fundamental shift in how people can shop for groceries.
"On-demand delivery changed how people shop. AI is now changing how they order. We're moving from search-and-scroll shopping to conversation-led shopping that makes buying groceries faster, smarter and far more intuitive. For years, the focus has been on faster delivery. The next disruption is removing the effort from shopping itself. Consumers no longer just want speed – they want shopping apps to think for them,” he said in a statement.
Powered by Google's Gemini AI models, Penny uses multimodal AI to let customers shop however feels most natural, be it by voice, text and images.
"We are now in the era of AI assistants, where AI is moving beyond simply answering questions to helping people get things done," said Google South Africa country director Kabelo Makwane.
"The power of multimodal AI is people don't have to adapt to technology – the technology adapts to them. Whether someone speaks, types or shares a photo, AI understands their intent. When these capabilities are built into products people already know and trust, they solve everyday problems in a simple, intuitive way,” said Makwane.
The launch comes as Pick n Pay online continues to gain momentum.
"Last year we re-platformed asap! across both the front and back end, significantly accelerating our speed of development. That gives us the ability to bring new AI-powered innovations to customers much faster, with more enhancements rolling out over the coming months. This is only the beginning of what AI can unlock, and Penny is the first step in that journey," said Ferigolli.
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