Retailers have never known more about their customers. From loyalty data to personalised recommendations and AI-powered insights, grocery has become exceptionally good at understanding what people buy. But has the industry become too good at giving customers what they already want?
As AI reshapes product discovery, this question becomes more urgent. NIQ found that 55% of global consumers say AI recommendations at least sometimes influence their household and grocery purchases. Yet knowing what customers already like is a different skill from inspiring what they’ll want next.
Grocery has a data advantage. What it needs now is a stronger point of view.
Algorithms can identify patterns, anticipate preferences and respond to demand. But taste requires something more instinctive: the confidence to champion an unfamiliar producer, spot an emerging food movement or introduce customers to something they never knew they wanted.
Retailers may be underestimating the commercial value of that creative judgement. Supermarkets are already investing in chef collaborations, curated ranges, immersive experiences and content-led campaigns. The industry doesn’t lack creativity or opportunities to engage customers.
The question is whether these investments give shoppers a reason to choose one retailer over another. In a market where products and prices can be easily compared, a distinctive point of view on food is harder to copy.
But as retailers increasingly draw on the same trend forecasts, audience insights and AI tools, the ideas themselves risk become more predictable. Everyone can identify the next emerging cuisine or trending ingredient. The more interesting question is who has the taste and creative confidence to interpret those signals differently.
That’s where experience design and programming have a bigger role to play. The strongest retail experiences express a distinctive point of view, creating encounters customers couldn’t have predicted from their previous shopping habits.
Waitrose’s Newbury concept store offers a glimpse of this thinking, combining technology with a Food Lovers Hub, specialist food expertise and hospitality partnerships.
For emerging food brands, this matters just as much. Without years of purchasing data behind them, they need retailers willing to recognise potential, take creative risks and give unfamiliar products a platform.
Of course, commercial outcomes matter. Product trial, category growth, incremental sales and repeat purchasing are all important measures of success.
But if past performance becomes the primary justification for future investment, how much room are we leaving for genuinely new ideas?
The challenge for grocery is deciding whether it wants to follow consumer tastes or help shape them. As access to data and AI becomes increasingly widespread, the judgement to make unexpected creative choices could become the real point of difference.
Louise Odquier is strategy director at Imagination
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