If you’ve ever dealt with a chatbot, and chances are you have, they’re usually on the informative side of a discussion about a product, service or experience and are not the ones making the decisions for you. All you’ll have to do is approve.
From later this year, Woolworths is making inroads into changing that.
The supermarket giant has launched a new partnership with Google which will transform its chatbot, known as ‘Olive’, into a more assertive assistant when it comes to helping you plan your home cooking for the week, or however often you shop.
The supermarket giant said the upgrade will allow Olive to move beyond answering customer questions and resolving issues, enabling it to plan meals, interpret your handwritten recipes, apply loyalty discounts and suggest items that can be added directly to a shopping basket.
Woolworths said Olive will not automatically complete purchases and customers will still need to approve and pay for orders. However, the change marks a shift in how shopping decisions can be made, with more product choices shaped before customers reach the checkout.
Google describes the underlying technology as a “proactive digital concierge” that can understand customer intent, reason through multi-step tasks and execute actions. Similar systems are being adopted by major US retailers, including Walmart, as part of Google’s broader push into agent-based commerce.
Under the partnership, the new Google Gemini version of Olive will be able to assemble full shopping baskets if customers give permission. For example, a shopper could upload a photo of a handwritten recipe and receive a complete list of ingredients based on product availability and discounts, or request a meal plan that generates a ready-made basket reflecting past preferences, promotions and local stock levels.
Olive’s expanded role will change the way shoppers interact with the online store. Instead of browsing and comparing products themselves, the supermarket giant is banking on customers being more likely to review and approve selections generated by the system, shifting decision-making from the individual to the platform.
Woolworths has framed the move as a convenience designed to save time and increase personalisation. However, critics note that agent-based systems do not operate on neutral criteria. Recommendations will be influenced by pricing strategies, promotional priorities and commercial arrangements, embedding ‘nudging’ into the structure of choice rather than presenting it as visible advertising.
It’s also unclear how Woolworths will handle data privacy. Grocery shopping data can reveal sensitive details about households, including health conditions, dietary needs, cultural practices and financial pressures. Google has said customer data used in its system is not used to train models and that strict safety standards apply, but questions remain about how long data is retained, how it is aggregated and how insights are used.
While the enhanced chatbot may reduce friction for many households, the move raises broader questions about consumer autonomy as AI systems take a more active role in everyday decisions. Calls are growing for greater transparency around how recommendations are generated, limits on commercial incentives shaping AI behaviour and clearer boundaries on household data use as agent-led shopping becomes more widespread.