Pick n Pay is turning to artificial intelligence in its bid to claw back ground in South Africa’s fiercely contested online grocery market, unveiling a conversational shopping assistant called Penny inside its on-demand asap! app. The tool, which begins a full public rollout on 6 July, lets shoppers assemble a basket simply by describing what they need.
How Penny works
Built on Google’s Gemini large language models, Penny allows customers to shop through ordinary conversation rather than scrolling through categories or typing exact product names. Shoppers can speak, type or even snap a photograph — of a handwritten list, a recipe or a product on the shelf — and Penny will translate it into a basket. It can also suggest recipes, recommend substitutions when an item is out of stock, help with meal planning and steer budget-conscious shoppers towards cheaper options.
Playing catch-up in a delivery war
The launch is the most significant upgrade to asap! since it went live, and it lands as South Africa’s grocers pour money into digital tools rather than competing on delivery speed alone. Pick n Pay, the country’s second-largest supermarket group by revenue, has been working through a turnaround after years of weak trading and market-share losses to Shoprite, whose Checkers Sixty60 platform dominates on-demand grocery delivery. Sixty60 introduced its own AI assistant, Pixie, only months ago, so Penny represents a direct answer on a new competitive front.
For Pick n Pay, the wager is that a friendlier, faster way to shop will lift basket sizes and loyalty at a moment when every percentage point of the online market is being fought over. Whether an AI concierge is enough to change entrenched shopping habits — and dent Sixty60’s commanding lead — will only become clear once Penny is in millions of hands from next week.
