Millions of personalised shopping interactions and a customer completing a R1 500 grocery order in just 15 seconds highlight the growing role of artificial intelligence in South African retail.
Image: Supplied.
Artificial intelligence is rapidly changing the way South Africans shop for groceries, with Shoprite's AI powered shopping assistant Pixie already becoming one of the retailer's fastest adopted digital innovations.
Just three months after its launch in April 2026, the retail giant said that Pixie is now used by 98% of Sixty60 Xtra Savings Plus members, highlighting strong consumer demand for personalised shopping experiences that simplify everyday tasks.
Available exclusively to Xtra Savings Plus members, Pixie's Smart Basket learns customers' shopping habits, predicts what they are likely to need next and recommends products that can be added to a basket with a simple swipe.
The technology has already helped customers add more than four million products to their grocery baskets while also contributing to higher average order values for the retailer.
Neil Schreuder, Chief of Strategy and Innovation at ShopriteX, said Pixie's rapid adoption demonstrated that consumers readily embraced technology when it delivered meaningful value.
"Talking about AI is one thing, but AI that genuinely saves customers time is another. Every unnecessary tap, search and scroll that Pixie removes is friction taken out of the shopping experience. The more customers use it, the better it understands their shopping habits, making each shop simpler and more intuitive than the last," Schreuder said.
Shoprite said the platform's most active Pixie user has added 730 products to their baskets using the swipe down functionality, with purchases worth a combined R36 236.
The retailer has also seen customers significantly reduce the time spent planning their grocery orders.
In one example, a customer completed an entire grocery shop worth more than R1 500 in just 15 seconds by adding 10 products to a basket using Pixie's recommendations.
The groceries were delivered to the customer's door within 31 minutes, meaning the entire process, from opening the app to receiving the order, took less than an hour.
According to Shoprite, Pixie illustrates how artificial intelligence is moving beyond novelty and becoming a practical tool that helps customers complete routine tasks more efficiently.
The retailer believes the more customers interact with the platform, the more personalised and accurate the recommendations become, creating a shopping experience that continues to improve over time.
The strong early adoption also signals a growing acceptance of AI powered personalisation in South Africa's retail sector, where convenience, speed and ease of use are increasingly influencing consumer behaviour.
For Shoprite, Pixie's performance suggests that artificial intelligence can deliver benefits for both shoppers and retailers by reducing friction during the shopping journey while encouraging larger and more personalised grocery baskets.
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