Artificial Intelligence (AI) could analyse the contents of your shopping basket and push you to make healthier choices if it discovers that you’re treating yourself to a little too much chocolate, crisps, or sweets, the Chief Executive of Tesco has revealed. Data on shopping habits is already tracked by its Clubcard loyalty scheme.
CEO Ken Murphy has now revealed that AI could be used to monitor how customers were shopping to help “nudge” them into healthier choices. Addressing the FT Future of Retail Conference last week, he said: “I can see it nudging you over time, saying: ‘I’ve noticed over time in your shopping basket that your sodium salt content is 250% of your daily recommended allowance. I would recommend you substitute this, this and this’.”
Tesco says there are no plans to use AI to advise shoppers on their eating habits, but it was cited as an interesting example of how AI could revolutionise the 29-year-old Clubcard scheme
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He added: “It can help to bring your shopping bill down, reduce waste and improve the outcome and the power of that Clubcard,” adding that AI “will completely revolutionise how customers interact with retailers”.
Aside from helping shoppers make healthier choices in their weekly shop, the next-generation Tesco Clubcard could also ensure you never miss a promotion. For example, AI could tell you to wait a week to stock-up on a particular product if Tesco has a discount coming up that would make the shop cheaper.
Mr Murphy said the aim was for customers to feel that “Clubcard is literally doing their job for them and making their lives easier”. He said this was “very simple stuff” which could “really improve people’s daily lives”.
Tesco has said it does not “sell or share any individual customer data and we take our responsibilities regarding the use of customer data extremely seriously”. It stressed it was not currently looking at rolling out a “nudge” policy, but that it’s just an example of how AI could be used to change the lives of shoppers.
Tesco is Britain’s largest supermarket, and more than 22 million households are currently signed up to its Clubcard scheme, which launched in 1995 and gives customers access to lower prices.
Henry Dimbleby, who led the Government’s existing national food strategy, told the BBC’s Today programme: “It’s great to hear that there’s recognition that if we don’t get a grip on food-related ill health it’s going to destroy our health, the NHS and the economy. But he (Ken Murphy) isn’t going to be able to do it on his own.
“During the food strategy we talked to the CEO of a supermarket who’d tried to do a similar thing in five stores and they had succeeded in improving the baskets of food that their customers were buying. But all five stores lost profitability, so they couldn’t roll it out.”
He added: “So (former chancellor and health secretary) Sajid Javid, before he resigned, was about to launch a piece of work which will be in the Department for Health about how you could take exactly what he’s referring to – the healthiness of baskets – and then put in place incentives so that all of them had to improve over time, so it wasn’t just Tesco who would be hurting their own profits, everyone would have to do it.”
Asked if he thought customers would welcome their data being looked at in this way, Mr Dimbleby said: “Their data is being looked at in this way whether they like it or not. They’re constantly being marketed to, they’re constantly having often – whether it’s online, whether it’s on social media – unhelpful and destructive attempts to change their behaviour.
“And the work we did suggested that people are quite up for being helped to be healthier.”
Professor Susan Michie, director of the Centre for Behaviour Change at University College London, also told the Today programme: “This in general is very good in terms of people’s health, because, especially things like salt content, people often have no idea.
“However, it’s really important that people be told what technology is being used in what way and for what purposes. So transparency’s really important. The other thing that’s really important is choice. So, as it seems to be at the moment, people just feed in their data and get these recommendations. However, what would be a step better would be they would have a choice about what data they give.
“Do they want to share their health data for example? Because if they do share their health data they’ll get more useful recommendations. But they may not want to.
“But also what are their own goals? Their goals might be to be healthier, but their goals might be to spend less money or be more sustainable.”
The proposal from Tesco executive comes just a few days after the Labour Government confirmed it plans to introduce legislation that will ban companies from advertising products deemed high in fat, salt, and sugar on television before the 9pm watershed. It’ll also include a complete ban on paid-for online adverts for these products, in an effort to tackle childhood obesity.
First launched back in February 1995 by Sir Ian MacLaurin, Chairman of Tesco, the Clubcard rewards customers based on the amount of money they spend by accumulating points which are converted into vouchers. Using a Clubcard can also unlock lower prices in-store
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The ban, which had been first put forward by Boris Johnson’s Conservative government in 2021, will come into force in October 2025. Health Minister Andrew Gwynn said the new Government would push forward “without further delay” in order to provide clarity for businesses.
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Food industry bosses said they want the government to “move swiftly” on finalising the draft regulations so that firms can be prepared ahead of the law change. Meanwhile, the Advertising Association trade group said the announcement will bring certainty, but questioned the impact of the measures on tackling childhood obesity.
Additional Reporting By Josie Clarke, PA Consumer Affairs Correspondent
