AI shopping assistants are beginning to play a role beyond product research, with Glovo reporting that customers arriving through AI-assisted journeys are converting into orders at a higher rate than the platform’s average.
Speaking at Glovo Kenya’s Future of Commerce Summit, Caroline Mutuku said orders originating through AI assistants converted at 41%, compared with an average conversion rate of 33% in the Glovo app. The figures offer an early indication of how conversational interfaces could influence the path from discovering a product to placing an order.
The comparison does not, by itself, establish why AI-originated orders convert at a higher rate or whether the difference will persist as usage grows. But it gives the company a commercial reason to pay attention to the channel as shopping interfaces evolve.
Glovo has already integrated with ChatGPT and Claude, allowing users to use conversational AI to help find products before continuing to Glovo to complete their purchases. The summit figures add a performance dimension to that existing integration: the question is no longer only whether AI can help customers discover items, but whether those journeys lead to completed transactions.
From product discovery to a completed order
Traditional online shopping often begins with a customer opening an app, browsing categories or searching for a particular product. An AI assistant changes the starting point by allowing a customer to describe what they need in ordinary language.
A customer might ask for a particular type of meal, household item or personal-care product. The assistant can help narrow the request and suggest options, reducing the effort involved in navigating categories or formulating precise search terms.
That convenience could matter when the customer has a specific need but does not know which product or merchant to choose. Instead of beginning with a list of stores, the customer begins with a task and receives suggestions that may help them reach a decision.
However, discovery and purchasing remain separate stages. An AI assistant can recommend an item without necessarily confirming that it is available, checking the final price or completing payment. In Glovo’s existing integration, the customer continues to the platform to complete the order.
That hand-off matters because the transaction still depends on the platform’s product information, availability, delivery options and checkout process. AI may change how customers find what they want, while the underlying commerce platform remains responsible for turning that intent into an order.
What Glovo’s conversion figures suggest
The 41% conversion figure reported by Mutuku is higher than the 33% average she cited for the Glovo app. That difference suggests that the people reaching the platform through AI-assisted journeys may be arriving with a more specific purchase intention, or that the discovery process is helping them reach a decision.
Those are possible explanations rather than established conclusions. The figures shared at the summit do not specify the measurement period, the size of the AI-originated order sample or the precise conversion definitions used. They also do not establish whether AI-originated customers spend more, order more frequently or remain active for longer.
Even with those limitations, the comparison points to a useful commercial question for delivery platforms and merchants: can AI-assisted discovery bring customers closer to the point of purchase than conventional browsing?
If it can, the effect could extend beyond food delivery. A conversational interface can help customers navigate a broad catalogue, compare options or identify products that fit a particular need. That becomes more relevant as platforms expand into groceries, personal care, baby products, electronics and other retail categories.
Mutuku said Glovo had recorded increased searches across several non-food categories between January and September 2026. Baby products searches rose by 48%, beauty and personal-care searches by 45%, small electronics and accessories by 42%, and large electronics and appliances by 40%, according to figures presented at the summit.
Those search trends do not prove that AI caused the increase. They do, however, show why the discovery experience matters to a platform that wants to serve more than restaurant orders. Customers need ways to find products across a wider catalogue without having to understand the platform’s entire category structure.
Conversion is only one part of the opportunity
A higher conversion rate is commercially useful, but it is not a complete measure of an AI shopping channel’s value.
Platforms also need to understand order value, repeat purchases, cancellation rates, customer acquisition costs and the reliability of the product recommendations. A channel that converts a high proportion of users may still have limited value if it generates few orders or if customers encounter problems after checkout.
Merchants also need accurate product information. An AI assistant can only make useful recommendations when the underlying catalogue describes products clearly and provides sufficiently current information about availability and pricing. If the information is incomplete, the convenience of conversational discovery can be undermined by an unavailable item or a mismatch between what the customer expects and what the merchant can deliver.
There is also a question of control. Customers may welcome assistance with finding products while still wanting to review the final basket, delivery details and payment amount before confirming a purchase. The line between helping a customer decide and acting on the customer’s behalf becomes more important as AI tools gain the ability to initiate transactions.
That distinction will matter particularly as commerce moves from assistants that recommend products towards systems that can take more steps on a customer’s behalf.
The next challenge is making AI useful and dependable
The summit figures give Glovo an early commercial signal, but they do not settle how AI-assisted shopping will develop in Kenya. Adoption will depend on whether customers find the experience genuinely useful, whether product information is reliable and whether completing an order remains straightforward.
The opportunity is broader than putting a chatbot in front of a catalogue. AI-assisted discovery needs to connect with merchant inventory, accurate descriptions, fulfilment and secure checkout. Without those links, it may help customers identify products but leave the difficult parts of shopping unchanged.
For retailers and platforms, the practical measure is whether the technology reduces friction and leads to successful orders without creating new problems elsewhere in the process.
Glovo’s reported 41% conversion rate gives the company a reason to keep developing the channel. Whether that advantage holds as AI shopping reaches more customers will depend on the quality of the full journey, from the first question a customer asks to the moment the order arrives.
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