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This page covers AI in retail as stores actually run it: customer-service chatbots, shopping agents, automated grocery fulfillment, and drone and sidewalk-robot delivery.
Customer service is where shoppers meet AI first, and where it slips. Woolworths removed scripted lines from its Olive chatbot after customer complaints, the BBC reported. [2] A reply Aldi sent to a complaint arrived with the AI prompt "Make it short and concise but do not overdo it" still in it. An Aldi spokesperson said it "fell well below our normal standards of customer service." [4]
Shopping agents are arriving too. Amazon began blocking Meta's Muse agent with a popup citing its Conditions of Use, GeekWire reported. [3] Canadian grocer Loblaw launched its PC Express app inside ChatGPT on Feb. 12, 2026. [5]
Automation behind the store is costly to get wrong. Kroger said it would close three automated fulfillment centers and expected about $2.6 billion in impairment and related charges. [1]
For delivery, Zipline began Walmart drone deliveries to households within 2 miles of a Mesquite, Texas, Supercenter, free at launch, FreightWaves reported. [6] DoorDash built its own delivery robot, Dot, which carries up to 30 pounds, TechCrunch reported. [7]
Each case below says what was deployed, what it cost where disclosed, and what went wrong.
© 2026 Real World Wire. Written October 28, 2026.
At its Oct. 20 investor day, Kroger laid out an online growth plan built on 2,700 stores, faster delivery and in-store automation. Ocado's name didn't come up once.
Four of the five promised metros (Atlanta, Houston, Orlando and Charlotte) are now live. Tampa isn't. Meanwhile the target has grown to more than 270 stores, now set for 2027.
Twelve days after Meta launched its personal AI agent, Amazon started showing Muse users a popup citing its Conditions of Use. The two companies give conflicting accounts of how Muse handles customer passwords.
A Birmingham shopper who found hairs in a dip got an answer that included the instruction used to write it. Aldi says the response "fell well below" its standards.
Canada's largest grocer put its PC Express app inside ChatGPT in February 2026. Three months later its CEO said adoption was "ahead of plan" and a "2.0 version" was coming, without giving a number.
Customers complained that Olive, the Australian grocer's chatbot, talked about its mother and claimed to be a real person. Woolworths says people wrote the birthday lines, and it has removed them.
Kroger's filings put the charge at $2.585 billion and say the network wasn't meeting "operational or financial expectations." The settlement also covers a planned site in Charlotte that won't be built.
The grocer says its Ocado-built network isn't meeting financial expectations. Three sites close in January, state notices cover more than 1,600 jobs, and orders move to stores and delivery apps.
Dot rides bike lanes, roads and sidewalks at up to 20 mph. DoorDash gave specs and a launch area, but not costs or merchant counts.
Serve opened Uptown Dallas to robot delivery through Uber Eats. In the same quarter, its cost of revenue was $1.9 million against $440,465 in revenue.
Customers within about 2 miles of a Mesquite, Texas Supercenter can get up to 8 pounds of goods dropped by drone. Walmart will set the price later.
Serve Robotics brought its delivery robots to Miami Beach and Brickell for Shake Shack and Mister O1 orders. It didn't say how many robots, or what a delivery costs.
About 1,200 orders in, the pilot has student fans, a few-dollar fee and a city council member asking what it means for delivery workers.