Penny AI Launches in Pick N Pay Asap! App on July 6

In Short

Pick n Pay asap! has launched Penny, an AI-powered grocery shopping companion inside its app.

The tool lets customers build baskets and plan meals through natural conversation, using voice, text, or photos.

Pick n Pay says the feature will roll out to all customers from July 6, 2026.

What Happened

Pick n Pay asap! is adding Penny to the latest version of its on-demand grocery app. Penny is powered by Google’s Gemini AI models, which are large language models, meaning software trained on huge amounts of text and images to understand requests and generate useful responses.

Unlike a typical customer service chatbot, Penny is focused on shopping help. It does not handle payments, account changes, or order enquiries.

Customers can ask for items in their preferred language by speaking or typing. They can also upload images like a handwritten shopping list, a photo of ingredients, or a picture of a product. Penny then builds a basket based on what it thinks the shopper means.

Pick n Pay says Penny also supports meal planning. It can suggest recipes, recommend substitutions when items are unavailable, and create shopping lists based on what someone already has at home.

The assistant connects to Pick n Pay’s Smart Shopper loyalty programme. That means it can tailor recommendations using past purchases, preferred brands, typical quantities, and price preferences.

Why It Matters

Grocery apps often push customers into search and filters, which can be slow on mobile. Pick n Pay is betting that “conversation-led shopping” can shorten the path from intent to checkout, especially for repeat weekly baskets.

The multimodal design, meaning it can understand text, voice, and images, could also reduce friction for users who prefer speaking a list or snapping a photo instead of typing.

For retailers, tools like Penny may improve basket size and retention by making discovery and substitutions easier. It also signals how AI features are moving beyond support and into core commerce workflows in South Africa’s retail market.