00:00As AI starts moving from answering questions to actually helping us get things done, grocery shopping could be one of
00:06the next big places to see that shift. Joining us now to help us understand how it will all work
00:11is Ryan Hamburger, Chief Commercial Officer at Instacart. Thank you so much for joining us, Ryan.
00:18Of course. Thank you for having me.
00:20Yeah. So for those who might not know much about your role with Instacart, what does the Chief Commercial Officer
00:26do at Instacart? And what is it that you're focused on right now?
00:32Yeah. So in short, I oversee all of our commercial efforts here across our retail partners, as well as all
00:37of our non-retail partners.
00:39So the things behind the scenes that make the Instacart experience tick and all of the consumer-facing components like
00:45integrations with Grubhub, our payment providers, things of that nature.
00:50And I would say, you know, a lot on our plate in the current ecosystem, but AI, as you can
00:56imagine, is front and center.
00:57And so very excited to talk to you today about some of the new tools that we are launching.
01:02Yeah, definitely. And I know Instacart just launched Clementine, which is an AI-powered grocery shopping and assistant.
01:08What need did you see among shoppers that led you to create Clementine?
01:14Yeah, I think from where we sit, I mean, look, first, we've been a trusted grocery delivery partner in the
01:19industry for close to 15 years at this point.
01:21And so we obviously sit on a lot of solid data with us and our retail partners.
01:26But stepping back and we were thinking the next evolution of grocery shopping, we still, and not just Instacart, as
01:33an industry, we haven't solved that age-old question of what's for dinner.
01:37You know, we know from a poll that Harris conducted on our behalf, 80% of consumers are stressed by
01:44meal planning each week, right?
01:45And a third of them will actually tell you it's not the cooking that adds stress to their life.
01:50It's just simply figuring out what they need and what they're going to cook that night.
01:54And so for us, that was almost a very simple premise to say, okay, how can we bring technology to
02:00bear to help consumers meal plan and figure out their weekly grocery shopping experience in a much more seamless way,
02:08right?
02:08And so you think, I've mentioned meal planning recipes, but even things like kids' birthday parties, right?
02:14I have a 10-year-old at home and getting all of the right things for that birthday party is
02:18no small feat.
02:18So how do we bring technology to bear so that we can just make consumers' lives a bit easier with
02:25the technology?
02:27Definitely. And how is Clementine and Instacart's other shopping assistants different from typical AI chatbots?
02:34What is it that Clementine will be able to do that, you know, going into other AIs might not be
02:41as unequivalent to when it comes to getting these recipes together?
02:45I know I'm definitely one of the people that stresses a lot.
02:49And sometimes you go into an AI and ask for recipes, and it's not really helpful.
02:55Sometimes you're trying to get different ingredients that you can't find, and maybe there is an inventory from certain online
03:03retailers as well.
03:04So what are the different innovations within your software?
03:10Yeah, absolutely. I mean, I think first and foremost, you hit the nail on the head.
03:14There's so much noise around AI today, but really the experience across all of these platforms is grounded in the
03:20data or sometimes the lack thereof.
03:23And so to answer your question, just point blank, for us, we believe our data and the foundation that we've
03:28built over the last 15 years is what's going to make our tool better.
03:32Right. So, you know, publicly, we say we've done 1.6 billion orders in our history.
03:37We're processing over 10 million inventory updates daily.
03:41We shop from 100,000 stores across North America.
03:45And so there is nobody better situated to understand what's on the shelf, what might be on sale, what have
03:52you bought historically that might make sense for dinner this week.
03:56And so all of those signals now feed Clementine in a way that we can help the consumer find those
04:02items that we believe no other AI tool is set up to do.
04:08How personalized can this experience become, you know, for example, a lot of people have different allergies or different preferences
04:16within their diets.
04:18How is that being worked in?
04:21Yeah, it's a great it's a great point.
04:23And it's a it's also, I think, critical for any of these tools to really nail.
04:27I noted the foundational layer.
04:29Of course, that data can't be replicated, but that data is only as good as also understanding the exact parameters
04:34the consumer is trying to solve for.
04:36Right. You could call it your your goals if you want to be positive or you can call it your
04:41constraints if you want to take the other lens.
04:43But we allow the consumer to give us those signals, both through things like their profile, but even just the
04:49back and forth with the agent.
04:51Right. So what we are seeing is usually that first engagement with Clementine is a simple task.
04:56Right. Help me build a basket of my usual purchases.
04:59I mean, that's a very easy way to to test the technology, understand how it responds.
05:05We see that quickly start to dovetail on the second, third use case around me and my partner are protein
05:12maxing.
05:12Help us meal plan for the week or I have a child that's gluten free.
05:16Help me map out kids lunches for the week.
05:19And so you can start to take those inputs from the consumer and then again, relying on all the data
05:24that we have, both not just what's in the store, but also knowing all of the nutritional information and the
05:30attributes of the product.
05:31How do we then curate the response back so it meets those particular needs of the consumer?
05:39What is it that you're seeing from early users as they start using Clementine?
05:44And what and what is that telling you about how people are using A.I. to shop?
05:48Yeah. Yeah.
05:49Of course, it's early days, as you know.
05:51But I think the nice thing that we're seeing is, you know, first and foremost, stepping back on Instacart for
05:57a moment, we have industry leading digital baskets at one hundred and fifteen dollars across the platform.
06:02Users who are engaging with Clementine are spending more than that on average.
06:06So unit counts are up, basket sizes are up.
06:09One, that's that's just a great outcome for us and our retail partners, obviously.
06:12But second, that tells us that Clementine is actually solving a need for the consumer because their baskets are bigger,
06:18which means they're finding the things that they need.
06:21You know, personally, I'm sure this has happened to you, but I don't want to speak for you.
06:24The number of times I've walked into a physical grocery store and left thinking I just bought a bunch of
06:29things, but I'm not sure it actually makes a meal.
06:32Well, Clementine can actually solve that problem for the consumer.
06:37You know, Clementine, I'm sure, also helps customers find deals and lower cost alternatives and healthier options.
06:44So how do you balance personalization with helping people save money and make better choices?
06:52Yeah, again, I think all of those need to be a part of the equation.
06:55And I think part of it comes back to the data that we have, but a lot of it comes
06:59back to what is the consumer trying to optimize for?
07:03And that's where the Clementine experience is not only learning based off all of the inputs, but as you, Arnold,
07:09engage with Clementine, it's learning more about you each time you engage with it and each time you shop with
07:14it.
07:14So if you are a value oriented consumer, yes, we want to make sure we're surfacing things that are of
07:20better value that can mean on sale, that can mean lower price, that can mean higher pack size.
07:25So you're getting a better unit value.
07:27And those are all signals that we take in both from the from the massive data pool that we're sitting
07:32on, but also the specific prompts and language that the consumer is using so that we know, are you searching
07:38for value?
07:39Are you more health conscious?
07:40Are you looking for gluten free?
07:42All of those things need to kind of work in conjunction with each other.
07:47Definitely.
07:47And we know Instacart has been investing a lot in AI across consumer shopping, retailer technology, external AI platforms.
07:56How does Clementine fit into the company's bigger AI strategy?
08:00And what does the next several years look like for Instacart?
08:03Yeah, absolutely.
08:04So Clementine, you know, I think it's a bit implied, but Clementine is the shopping assistant that lives within our
08:10marketplace experience.
08:11The beauty of what we do with our retail partners is we always want to take the great technology that
08:17we're building on our marketplace and turn it into a white label or enterprise version for our retail partners.
08:22So while Clementine is a great tool to engage while you're shopping marketplace, we have a version of Clementine that
08:28we just call card assistant by design that allows our retail partners to actually embed a very similar agent like
08:36tool within their first P, their one P properties.
08:39They can brand it, they can brand it, tone of voice, all the things you would expect built on that
08:44same foundational layer, but allows us to also then augment with the data retailers have about their customers, their specific
08:51stores that we may not have visibility to, right?
08:54And so I think that's the secret sauce of Instacart.
08:57We're not just a marketplace.
08:58We are truly trying to be the best technology provider for all of our retail partners.
09:03And that means nailing the marketplace experience, but also nailing that enterprise experience.
09:09Definitely exciting stuff, especially for those of us who struggle to come up with meals definitely throughout the day.
09:16Thank you so much, Ryan Hamburger, Chief Commercial Officer at Instacart.
09:20It's been a pleasure having you today.
09:21Thank you so much.
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