Is the Fridge Screen the Next Horizon for In-Home Grocery Tech?
Anyone who has come back from a grocery trip or unboxed an order and realized that they forgot a needed item can get a friendly reminder, thanks to a new tech partnership. Instacart and Samsung Electronics are teaming up to offer an AI-powered appliance that enables people to shop for groceries from their refrigerator screen.
RELATED: EDITOR'S NOTE: The Agents Are Coming
Through this collaboration, 2025 models of Samsung Bespoke refrigerators will marry Samsung’s proprietary food recognition technology, known as AI Vision Inside, with Instacart’s advanced product-matching application programming interface (API). These refrigerator owners can use the AI Vision Inside technology and their screens to manage their fridge inventory and replenish items through Instacart’s services.
“Samsung is working tirelessly to enable a more convenient home experience for our users with innovative technologies,” said Jeong Seung Moon, EVP and head of the consumer experience team for the digital appliances (DA) business at Samsung Electronics, whose U.S. corporate office is in Ridgefield Park, N.J. “The combination of Samsung’s key technology and Instacart’s outstanding online grocery shopping platform will be a great example of how partnership can create a new level of convenience.”
Added Daniel Danker, chief product officer at San Francisco-based Instacart: “We’ve all dreamt of a refrigerator that could replenish itself, and now thanks to this partnership with Samsung, that’s no longer the stuff of science fiction. With the Instacart Developer Program that will power this seamless integration, Samsung Bespoke refrigerator owners will be able to place grocery orders and easily restock empty fridge shelves via same-day delivery through Instacart from their favorite local grocery retailers.”
According to the partners, the new Instacart experience also will be available on existing Samsung AI Family Hub+ units via over-the-network (OTN) firmware updates this year.
2025 is shaping up to be another year of expansion for Instacart, which works with more than 1,500 national, regional and local retail banners to facilitate online shopping, delivery and pickup services from more than 85,000 stores across North America on the Instacart Marketplace. Maplebear Inc. is the registered corporate name of Instacart.
