Woolworths is strengthening its digital retail ecosystem with My Woolies Chef, an AI-powered food assistant designed to simplify meal planning and enhance the customer shopping experience.
Built into the Woolworths app, the tool helps customers answer one of the most common daily questions, “What’s for dinner tonight?”, while creating a more connected journey from meal inspiration to shopping.
Powered by AI and drawing from the Woolworths TASTE recipe archive that spans over 20 years, My Woolies Chef allows customers to use simple prompts to receive personalised recipe suggestions based on available ingredients, preferences, household needs or occasions. Once customers have chosen a recipe, they can move from inspiration to an automatically linked shopping basket on Woolies DASH.
The tool will be available to a small cohort of existing MyDifference loyalty programme members from September 2026 as part of an ongoing beta testing phase, with the intention of rolling it out more broadly in early 2027.
A more connected customer journey
The tool allows customers to use simple prompts to ask for meal ideas based on ingredients they already have, specific dietary preferences, family needs or occasions. Ingredients can also be adjusted according to what is already in the fridge or pantry, helping customers shop more efficiently and make better use of what they have at home.
Purposeful innovation for real customer needs
Unlike generic AI tools, My Woolies Chef is designed specifically for the South African food context, offering locally relevant recipes, seasonal ingredients and direct integration with the Woolworths shopping ecosystem. This allows customers to move from inspiration to purchase in a single connected experience.
Download the Woolworths app to unlock smarter meal planning and shop with ease.
