Key Takeaways
- Instacart’s advertising business generated over $1 billion in 2025, reaching nearly 100,000 stores across more than 2,200 retail banners.
- Existing ad formats (recipe and occasion ads) already drive significant out‑of‑aisle impressions and new‑to‑brand sales (78 %/43 % and 90 %/36 %, respectively).
- Cart Assistant, Instacart’s AI‑powered shopping tool built on 1.6 billion lifetime orders and live inventory, is expanding U.S. and Canada‑wide and producing orders above the platform’s $115 average order value.
- The company is testing three conversation‑native ad formats—sponsored recipes/occasions, deal surfacing, and product exploration—slated for H2 2026 after Cart Assistant’s full North‑American rollout.
- Integration with Google Gemini (first grocery partner) lets users build shoppable carts via natural language, underscoring the habit‑driven nature of grocery shopping that fuels AI learning.
- Instacart’s ad ecosystem now spans its consumer marketplace, retailer enterprise platform, and advertising layer, with Cart Assistant adding a planning‑and‑discovery surface that amplifies basket size.
- The move aligns with a broader industry race—Google’s Universal Cart, Amazon’s Alexa for Shopping, and expanded AI Mode search—where AI platforms aim to turn conversation‑initiated journeys into completed purchases.
- Instacart’s competitive edge lies in its grocery‑specific data and fulfillment infrastructure, which underpins the AI assistant and makes its advertising offerings uniquely potent.
Instacart’s Advertising Scale Sets the Stage
Instacart’s advertising business has already become one of the largest in retail media, posting more than $1 billion in ads and other revenue in 2025 according to a May press release. The platform reaches nearly 100,000 stores across more than 2,200 retail banners, giving brands massive scale. Existing formats prove effective: “Recipe ads deliver 78 % out‑of‑aisle impressions and 43 % new‑to‑brand sales, and occasion ads drive 90 % out‑of‑aisle impressions and 36 % new‑to‑brand sales,” the company reported. These figures demonstrate that sponsored content can successfully steer shoppers toward brands they were not actively searching for, laying a foundation for more sophisticated, AI‑driven ad experiences.
Cart Assistant: The AI Engine Behind the Next Wave
Built on more than 1.6 billion lifetime orders and live inventory data, Cart Assistant is Instacart’s artificial‑intelligence‑powered shopping tool. After months of testing, it rolled out to millions of U.S. customers, with a full rollout across the U.S. and Canada planned in the coming months, Instacart said in June. Early performance is promising: orders placed through Cart Assistant are already larger, on average, than Instacart’s industry‑leading $115 average order value, per the firm’s second‑quarter earnings release. CEO Chris Rogers called the ambition behind it “the gold standard of agentic grocery AI,” a quote highlighted by PYMNTS, underscoring the company’s belief that the tool can redefine how consumers plan and purchase groceries.
Designing Ads for Conversational AI
Recognizing that Cart Assistant operates through natural‑language dialogue, Instacart is testing three advertising formats built specifically for that conversational style. Sponsored recipes and occasions will surface when a shopper is planning something specific—think a barbecue or a holiday dinner. Deal surfacing will bring relevant offers directly into the chat, while product exploration will help brands appear as a shopper weighs options between similar items. Marketing Dive, citing Ali Miller, Instacart’s general manager of advertising, noted that testing is planned for the second half of 2026, after Cart Assistant expands to the full North‑American marketplace. This timing ensures the AI has sufficient reach and data maturity before introducing richer ad units.
Integrating with Google Gemini Expands Reach
A pivotal step in broadening Cart Assistant’s accessibility came on May 19, when Instacart became the first grocery partner integrated with Google’s Gemini. The integration lets users connect their Instacart account and build a shoppable cart through natural conversation, the company announced. Grocery is especially well‑suited to this kind of AI assistance because it is habitual rather than event‑driven; the same brands, dietary constraints, and preferred substitutions repeat week after week. These repeating patterns give the system consistent, learnable patterns to build on, Instacart explained, enhancing both the relevance of recommendations and the potential for targeted advertising.
Cart Assistant as a New Surface in Instacart’s Ad Ecosystem
Instacart’s advertising ecosystem already consists of three interlocking parts: the consumer marketplace, an enterprise platform for retailers, and the advertising layer itself, with each segment fueling growth in the others. Cart Assistant adds a new surface built around planning and discovery rather than pure transaction volume. By moving shoppers from a single‑item search toward planning an entire meal, the tool naturally surfaces more products per conversation than a traditional search bar that answers one query at a time. This expanded exposure creates opportunities for sponsored recommendations to shape which products enter the basket in the first place, increasing basket size and brand exposure simultaneously.
Aligning With the Wider AI‑Commerce Race
Instacart’s bet on conversational ads arrives amid a larger shift in how AI platforms are weaving commerce into their own products. At its I/O conference in May, Google launched Universal Cart, a single basket spanning Search, Gemini, YouTube, and Gmail, with an initial checkout rollout that includes Target, Walmart, Sephora, and Ulta Beauty (Stellagent). Amazon has consolidated its AI shopping tools into a single assistant called Alexa for Shopping (PYMNTS). Meanwhile, Google expanded its AI Mode search to let users connect and interact with apps, including Instacart (TechCrunch). These developments illustrate a broader industry race toward a shopping experience that starts with a conversation and ends with a completed purchase—a goal that aligns directly with Instacart’s Cart Assistant strategy.
Instacart’s Unique Advantage: Data and Fulfillment
While many tech giants are pursuing similar conversational commerce visions, Instacart holds a distinct advantage: its grocery‑specific data and fulfillment infrastructure. The platform’s deep well of order history, real‑time inventory, and localized fulfillment capabilities sit underneath the AI, enabling highly relevant, context‑aware suggestions. This foundation not only improves the shopper experience but also makes the advertising units more effective, as brands can reach consumers at moments of high intent—meal planning, occasion preparation, or product comparison—when they are most receptive to influence.
Looking Ahead: What the Next Year Holds
With Cart Assistant slated for a full North‑American rollout and advertising tests set for H2 2026, Instacart is positioning itself at the forefront of the AI‑driven grocery revolution. The company’s early metrics—larger basket sizes, strong out‑of‑aisle performance from existing ad formats, and successful integration with Google Gemini—suggest that its strategy could reshape how brands engage with shoppers in the era of conversational AI. As the broader tech ecosystem races to own the end‑to‑end shopping journey, Instacart’s combination of scale, data, and fulfillment may allow it to capture a disproportionate share of the emerging AI‑commerce market, turning everyday grocery planning into a powerful advertising channel.